A Higher Degree of Christian Living

If you would take your Bibles and turn to Ephesians chapter 1, we'll be looking at one phrase today in verse 3, and that is "every spiritual blessing," every spiritual blessing. I'm convinced that the Christianity that most are aware of and have grown up with is low-level living, not high Christian living, and I would like to bring a message to you entitled "A Higher Degree of Christian Living," a higher degree of Christian living, found in Ephesians chapter 1.

It is of a spiritual nature, not a physical nature. The false gospel lie, the prosperity gospel lie, is taking the Old Testament physical blessings that are prescribed to Israel, God's chosen people, and applying them to the New Testament believers in a physical way, and that usurps the spiritual blessings that I'm talking about today. And so "the joy of the Lord is your strength," as Nehemiah so eloquently proclaimed in Nehemiah 8:10, is a true joy. And Jesus had none of those physical blessings, and yet the joy of the Lord is something that I want you to be able to tap into today. Jesus had none of those physical blessings such as lands and houses and all of these things that the prosperity gospel would proclaim to you that you'd need in order to be happy, and yet these spiritual blessings are more enriching than you could ever, ever comprehend if you are trapped underneath a false prosperity gospel. So think with me spiritually today on these spiritual blessings.

Read with me in Ephesians chapter 1, verses 1 through 3: "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who were at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ" — we'll look again at this idiom here in just a moment — "in Christ Jesus. Grace to you and peace from God our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ." "In Christ" is mentioned twice. It places emphasis on our union in Christ and how all of our spiritual blessings are in Christ and through Christ to us.

Join me in prayer if you would for just a moment. Father, thank You for helping us today to understand this text, and I pray that You would illuminate the spiritual truths here for us to be able to live accordingly as New Testament Christians, not as ones who are trapped inside of a false American prosperity gospel or an American view of Christianity, but a New Testament worldview, a New Testament view of reality and life and the afterlife. I pray, Father, that You would help us to live for what we would die for and not live for the temporal blessings of this world, but live for You, dear Jesus, for You have died for us. And I pray, Father, that You help us to be focused upon these every spiritual blessing today. In Christ's name, amen.

I want to give you a propositional statement for this message: our heavenly riches in Christ far exceed any earthly riches. Our heavenly riches in Christ far exceed any earthly riches. This is logically supported by the text in saying that our blessings are located in the heavens, and so our heavenly riches are actually logically higher. And so they are not from a worldly worldview. They are from a heavenly worldview. They're from the heavens. They're from God. They're in Christ. And so heaven is higher and greater, not only in location but in value. And so God's value system in heaven is higher and greater in value, and it lasts longer. It's more meaningful, and even though it is invisible, it is — I'm telling you — tangible.

The kingdom of God can reside within you, and these invisible blessings from heaven can be such a reality that it consumes your life. It consumes your thoughts. It drives the motives. It gets you out of bed. It gives you a reason to live. It keeps you from depression. It keeps you from suicide. It keeps you ministering. It keeps you on mission. It keeps you serving for the purposes of Christ and not your own motives and mission that are temporal and will lead you to a dead end. You'll find yourself depressed. But in Christ, it's a limitless amount of rich grace. God's grace is rich. It says that in Ephesians. Look with me in chapter 1, verse 7: "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace." God's grace is rich, and His riches are without measurement. You cannot measure God's riches, and you cannot exhaust His grace.

And these spiritual blessings that have been in the past tense bestowed upon you are such that I believe we truly need to study for ourselves. I would commend to you to outline the rest of this passage, get ahead of me in the verse by verse and phrase by phrase and word by word. Dig into it and see for yourself what Paul is talking about with these spiritual blessings. The longest doxological statement that Paul gave in all of his writings is right before you, starting in verse 3 and going all the way to verse 14 — one long, beautiful run-on sentence. The Puritans were good at running on sentences. You could read one page and see not a period, turn it and go to another one, and you're like, "When is this thought ever going to stop? Where did it originate?" Well, Paul, being filled with the Holy Spirit, underneath the divine inspiration of God, gives us this, and we're tapping into the beginning of it.

"Every spiritual blessing" — this is, looking at verse 3, something that has already been done. "Blessed be the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us." He has already bestowed these blessings upon us, "with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places." So today I'm going to invite you to do what the psalmist said: "Taste and see that the Lord is good," Psalm 34 — "taste and see that the Lord is good." And when you get a taste of Jesus Christ, nothing else measures up to that. You need not chase anything else earthly. Whether it's money, by the way — is it paper? Is it a coin? Is it an idea? Is it a figment of our imagination? Is it value placed upon an object? Is it codependent upon what society says it is? Why in the world do we chase something like this? We cannot serve both God and mammon, or money. So we must set our motives on these every spiritual blessing and enjoying them.

It is the first thing for man to be able to do: to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. And so now, as we're getting used to these heavenly blessings, I want you to taste and see that these things are real for you. Those spiritual blessings in verse 3 are invisible. They're very tasteful and attainable. The average Ephesian had access to these above-average blessings, and the penny-poor Christian Ephesian could be spiritually rich — full of grace, full of gratitude, full of holiness, full of the inner praises and kindness and forgiveness. These have been lavished on us. Look in verse 8, "which He lavished on us."

This is how wonderful God is. He not only, by His sovereign grace, has given the gift of salvation to those who repent and believe, but beyond giving the wonderful gift of salvation and saving our soul from eternal damnation, He has then gone beyond the goodness of salvation to lavish upon us not just some but every spiritual blessing. All of these blessings are insurmountable, and we're going to be continuing to learn and see what they all are.

So what earthly blessings from gaining wealth here on earth are available to the Ephesians? What is Paul combating by saying "spiritual blessings"? We have trade wealth, the temple of Diana, the town mount, education that was available to them through the world-class library that was there in Ephesus, the entertainment at the theater there in Ephesus. Well, all of these earthly riches any Ephesian could earn, and they could attain them, and they could go and they could see. But my question for us is: can wealth buy spiritual health?

What about this — can Diana's evil temple provide heavenly blessings? Can a world-class education give you God's wisdom? Can laughter from a theater give you joy in the Lord? Can any of these things be obtained through what the Ephesians had at their very fingertips? But they were walking around and seeing the same things that you walk around and see and interact with. Do you see spiritual eyes? Or are you focused on the material? Are you in this world? I beg you to be in Christ and to see things with a spiritual perspective and be more focused upon them — the blessings that are invisible rather than that which is visible.

And so there's a quadruple no to the answer to all of my questions here. No, you cannot buy spiritual health. And no, Diana's evil temple would not be able to provide any type of spiritual heavenly blessings. And no, a world-class education cannot give you God's wisdom — it is Christ who imparts that through the Holy Spirit. And can any type of entertainment from movies and theater and jokes and YouTube and all these types of things keep you joyful? No, it's all temporal. But true, lasting joy is in Christ.

And so Diana's temple was filled with all kinds of immorality. Wealth from the Ephesian trading only produced further greed. Theater is filled with filthiness and silly talk and coarse jesting and all kinds of worldly entertainment. And in Ephesians chapter 5, verse 3, it says, "But immorality and impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as proper among saints. There must be no filthiness and silly talk or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather the giving of thanks." Instead, folks, we should be dead to sin and alive in Christ. Romans 6:11 says that we should be dead to all of these things.

They should not have any grip on you. They can't pull you around. They can't control your life. They can't control your finances and your affections and your thoughts. None of these things — all these things need to be cut off so that you can focus upon Christ. These are leashes that will drag you to the pits of hell. These are things that will rob your joy. They'll rob your kindness. They'll rob all the graces of God from your life, and you'll find yourself malnourished rather than spiritually full. It's the opposite of being filled with the Holy Spirit.

So not only are we not supposed to engage in these worldly things, and not only are the earthly and fleshly pleasures wrong, and not only are the temporal and cheap and improper physical things wrong in this world, but they are emptying and they are violating to your conscience, and they're destructive to the person. And so these earthly sins are robbing and corrupting your heavenly blessings. They are directly connected. And so when you engage in sin, you rob yourself of the heavenly blessings directly connected to it. So to pull on one is to yank the other. And so when you engage in something worldly, you are robbing yourself of the spiritual blessings. So the more time you spend on the earthly and the fleshly is the exact amount of time that you've robbed yourself of the spiritual blessings.

And life in Christ is so much better than dwelling on discontentment and dwelling upon the things of this world and looking at the Joneses, or keeping up with the Joneses, or trying to achieve things in this world. It's futile and it's a complete waste of your inner being. The inner being that is being spoken to here with these spiritual blessings is far greater than anything that this world could provide for you. If you chase after the things of this world, then you would obtain that thing and it would run its course, and you'd be bored with it in that season, and then you would have to sell it and get another thing, and you would run that course to the dead end. You'd be bored with that. And so if you're looking for joy and kindness and blessings and fulfillment and everything that God wants to put inside of your inner being, then you will simply be circulatory in this world, going from one thing to the another, to the another, to the another, from one hobby to the next, from one goal to the next, and it doesn't suffice.

But to be like Christ and have what Christ had in this world — do you agree that Jesus, when He walked on earth, demonstrated what it is to be filled with the Holy Spirit, filled with joy, complete contentment? All these wonderful things in the richness of the inner being come from the spiritual blessings that are available to us — every spiritual blessing that has been bestowed upon us. And yet sometimes we elude them and go and do our own thing. It's a complete waste of time. But beyond that, it is a thief and a robber of our spiritual vitality. And so when we are dwelling upon the things that we should not be dwelling upon, and doing the things that are not glorifying to the Lord, we rob ourselves of the spiritual blessings that have already been conferred upon us. And so our heavenly blessings enrich us, but the earthly sins rob us. You empty yourself when you're focusing upon that which is worldly.

Now, because verse 3 says that the heavenly blessings are in Christ, and Christ is God, and God is holy — "holy, holy, holy" — in fact, He's pure light. "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all," 1 John 1:5 says. When you sin, then it grieves God.

Even down to unwholesome words. In Ephesians chapter 4, verse 29, it says, "Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear." Now, if you read that verse in reverse, you could simply say that your words, if they are not seasoned with salt or filled with the Spirit, if they are unwholesome, then the result is that it will grieve those who hear and not give grace to those who hear. And we must discipline our lips. We must choose our words wisely. The content that you bring up guides people, and you are leaders as Christians. Around the table and in the house, the things that you talk about place people's minds on subject. Why would you waste any time on the worldly, on the sinful? We aren't even supposed to talk about what the evil people do in darkness when we have so many glorious subjects to explore. All of these spiritual blessings are right here for us.

And yet, why would we grieve the Holy Spirit? Verse 30 says, "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption," Ephesians 4:30.

So now I'm preaching to you a higher degree of Christian living, and I'm coaching and guiding and encouraging and prodding — maybe even you — to be enriched and not robbed by the things that you think about, by the things that you do, and how you do these things. A higher Christian living is focused upon these spiritual blessings. We think that life is staying alive, right? We think that life is having more, but that's not true. It's exactly the opposite in the Bible. We have people in the Bible who have historically claimed that their whole life is in Christ. Turn with me to the book of Acts and see it for yourself, Acts 17:28.

Acts 17:28: your whole life is in Christ. The Apostle Paul said, "For in Him, in Christ, we live and move and exist." Our whole being, both physical and spiritual, should be aimed at and in Christ. And so everything flows from our relationship in Christ. It's an honor to be considered worthy even to suffer shame for His name. The Apostle Peter said that in Acts 5:41.

So I want to ask you a question. Are you living for a higher degree of Christian living, or are you satisfied with the mundane, with the sorry, satisfied with dabbling in sin? Are you satisfied with the worldly and the earthly? A higher degree of Christian living is to look at whom we are of and in. God is holy. The Bible says in 1 Peter 1:16, "Be holy, for I am holy." And so since God is holy, we are to be holy. That's a high view of God and a high view of Christian living, and it is diametrically opposed to what we have grown up thinking with the American dream — get a two-story house with a white picket fence and have all the luxuries of life with all of the different amenities that come with it. There's no American dream in the Bible. In fact, it's the opposite. It's spiritual, not physical. It's even death instead of life. Revelation 2:10 says to be faithful even unto death. That is true living, if you are living for what you would die for.

Then you're living. But if you are living and doing things for that which you would not die for, then you're not truly engaged in a high Christian degree of living. Paul said, "I am not only to be bound, but even to die for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ," in Acts 21:13. What Paul lived for, he was willing to die for, and that's a great example to live by. So what you are doing — are you doing the things that you are willing to die for? That's important. Paul said, "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain," Philippians 1:21. And so we live in Christ with a viewpoint of dying well. That's gain. That's great. Because I'm going to be continuing to die unto myself anyway. The practice of denying yourself is Christian living. So if you're not living for something that you would die for, my friend, you're not living.

Today we'll continue to see a higher degree of Christian living. Jesus, spiritually speaking, said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Him." And so we're taking in this, and Paul would have gladly given his life to communicate these truths.

And so when it comes to passing out gospel tracts, when it comes to sharing the gospel and personally making disciples and discipling people for Christ, you should have in your mind that I'm willing to die to be able to do these things. Like Bonhoeffer, I'm willing to die to protect the church and proclaim Christ no matter what Hitler is doing. I'm willing to die for the causes of Christ because He died for me. What else do I have left to do on this earth except to be in Christ and do what He has given me to do?

And to do that, you're going to be engaged in spiritual warfare, and, my friend, you cannot win spiritual warfare in the flesh. So let me ask you a question. How have you historically fought spiritual battles?

Think about what you actually have done. Have you recused and gotten depressed? Is that how you have fought spiritual battles? Have you gotten worried and lost weight or gained weight?

That's how I have fought spiritual battles in the past. How have you fought spiritual battles in the past? Have you gotten in the flesh and reamed somebody out? Has your anger flowed downhill?

Have you lost sleep? Is that how you fight in the spirit?

Friends, listen to me: to win in the spirit, you've got to fight in the spirit. And to fight in the spirit is to engage and embrace and enjoy these spiritual blessings, because the joy of the Lord is your strength. When Nehemiah and Ezra were rebuilding the wall, and they had these awful guys from within persecuting them and from without coming at them, they had a sword in one hand and a trowel in the other, and they were rebuilding the wall and they were fighting the good fight, and the joy was their strength. It wasn't the sword. It wasn't the army. It wasn't their comrades. It wasn't all of Israel. It wasn't the battle itself. It was the joy of the Lord that was their strength. And so when we have these spiritual blessings, it combats evil. And when you are engaged in Christ and enjoying Christ, there's nothing greater than these spiritual weapons to fight off the evil.

Turn back with me to Ephesians chapter 6. I want you to see that the battles that you face are spiritual. Ephesians 6:12: "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers and powers, and against the world forces of this darkness, against the" — here's the word — "spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places."

And so you have spiritual forces. How would you combat spiritual forces? Well, certainly not with anything in the flesh. No guns, no swords, no verbal anger. There's nothing in the flesh that can combat spiritual forces except you in Christ and being alive in Him. You need spiritual blessings. You need to be in Christ. These blessings have been conferred upon you.

Now let's think about the phrase "every spiritual blessing," because in this spiritual realm that Paul is trying to drag the Ephesians out of — thinking about being tempted with the temple of Diana, trying to drag them out of wanting to go to the movies every Friday night, or to the theater to get some joy, or get through the work week or whatever, to drag them out of being tempted by gaining wealth through the trade location that they had there in Ephesus — as Paul is dragging them from the earthly and into the heavenly, he was dragging them from the material and into the spiritual. He's saying every spiritual blessing. "Every" means "all" in the Greek. That was hard to find out.

"Spiritual" means "invisible power." And then "blessing" — this blessing is a benefit bestowed upon. So a blessing, to receive a blessing, is something that is a benefit that has been bestowed or given to you. Every spiritual blessing, then, is our powerful benefits.

These powerful benefits are yours. God has not only saved those who were saved, but then He bestows upon His children powerful spiritual benefits, these blessings. They're not requests or wishes — they already have been bestowed upon you. They've been conferred. And so this blessing that has been bestowed in the past tense means that these blessings have already been given to the beloved, and now they are pronounced upon the Ephesian church by the Apostle Paul. And so the prosperous favor of God to cause happiness and sustainment is already done. Paul is proclaiming what has already been done.

So for the Ephesian church — who are church members or congregants, because there are faithful ones inside of the congregation and then there are those who are not as faithful (it says that here in the text, "to the faithful," which insinuates there are some who are not) — and so to the Ephesian church, to the faithful ones, they have these blessings, these powerful benefits that have been bestowed upon them. Which is essentially saying, for those of you who are not faithful, don't be living in temptation of Diana's temple, don't be consumed in the worldly theater.

Today's media, with endless scrolling, mind-numbing, emptying garbage that is not only wasting time but violating the mind, violating the heart, and violating the conscience — you are exposed to evil when you are constantly consuming without any type of vetting, without any type of discernment. You just click happily. You are violating and robbing yourself of these powerful benefits. They're directly tied, and you are losing the spiritual battle.

Losing. You're walking into a warfare, an actual warfare, without a gun, so to speak, and you're just slaughtering yourself. These things are for the beloved.

And so now to engage in these spiritual blessings, which starts this doxological statement and impacts all of these spiritual blessings, he is now going to elucidate them. He's going to detail them. And it's not even an extended list. As you ponder upon all the spiritual blessings that God has conferred upon you, you can think outside of the scriptural box, because this is not a complete list. The list that he starts in verse 3 actually started before verse 3, if you think about it. "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus — to you grace and peace." There are two spiritual blessings right there that have been conferred upon them for the sake of unity in the church. And then he starts the list in verse 3.

But think about this — even the fact that you exist. Did you make yourself exist, or was it a gift? That's a spiritual gift from God. God made you exist. Praise God that I exist today. The mere fact that you exist. And what about this? How about the food that you were fed when you were young and didn't earn? Was that a gift? Oh, what a gift, right? What a gift — you have had a gift conferred upon you, and all good gifts are from God. What about beyond the sustainment of your life, and now just as simply the fact of being able to know God?

What a gift. You don't have to know God, but you know about God, and you know God. This is a spiritual blessing that is so wonderful to dwell upon. But if you're caught up in the evils of this world, the endless subjects — Solomon said that the eye is never satisfied. You can just keep on looking and looking and looking and looking. You can travel the world and travel the internet, and you could still want to look for more.

You could be looking all day long and be bloodshot in the eyes and worn slap out from not eating, but looking all day long, and guess what? You will want to look some more. Just know this type of stuff. And the Bible says in Colossians 3:2 to set the mind on things above and not on things of the earth. And so choose to look at the right things and be filled with the Holy Spirit, not emptied by the things of this world. You're robbing yourself if you are not choosing to dwell in Christ.

Every spiritual blessing — these things are in Christ. Where are they? The source is from heaven. How are they dispersed? Through Christ. Read it with me in verse 3: "Blessed be the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, the location, in Christ. And so they're conferred upon us in Christ. Look at verse 5: "He predestined us to adoption as sons through Christ" — and so there's another spiritual blessing that we'll be looking at in detail. That blessing of sovereign salvation is through Christ, "through Christ Jesus to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed upon us." You see how the spiritual blessing was bestowed upon you. We could have a testimony night here, and I guarantee you would go for three, four, or five — maybe six, seven, eight hours — about how God has bestowed salvation upon you and how grateful you are for Him saving your soul.

These are spiritual blessings, and they're located in heaven and distributed through Christ. And so, to be in Christ — that idiom, that phrase — is already mentioned twice: in verse 1, "in Christ," and in verse 3, "in Christ." "In Christ" has now been repeated twice. It's a prepositional phrase. It's an idiom, and it is the central theme of this doxological blessing. It is the centerpoint of what we need to be focused upon. Christ is whom God blessed His people through. Christ has already been mentioned twelve times in these three verses. And so God, Yahweh, the creator of the heavens and the earth, now bestows His very own designed favors and benefits and abundances and gloriousness in His attitudes and His kindnesses freely upon us. Freely He has bestowed them upon us. Have you been living without them? And do you know what they are? Do you have any idea as to what blessings you have? We'll continue to study. Look ahead, read ahead, study ahead in this doxological statement.

These blessings are spiritual. They're invisible. So God freely blessed us through Christ with every spiritual blessing. "Spiritual" — the word "spirit" is pneuma, and this in the Greek is pneumatikos, which is higher. It's pneuma — spiritual. It's higher than man. It's spiritual. We're physical, right? It's higher. And so the spirit belongs to the spirit, that which belongs to the spirit is spirit. And now these pneuma — a doctrine here in the Holy Spirit — pneumatology, pneuma, spiritual — all of these spiritually spiritual blessings have been through Christ bestowed upon you from heaven.

And I don't know about you, but that makes me think that coffee cups and gifts or whatever from earthly things are meaningless. I want to devote myself to learning more about these spiritual heavenly blessings. These blessings — they belong to and are owned and designed by the divine. He has the patent on all of them, and they have all been custom-designed by Him, and they're powerful. Very powerful spiritual blessings. You think of pneumatic tools. They take rims and tires off of vehicles with power tools that are powered by air — pneumatic. Wind is powerful. Think of a hurricane, and how Hurricane Andrew changed the landscape of South Florida. Even all of the atmosphere and everything down south was completely changed by wind. Wind is powerful.

In this illustration, spiritual blessings are powerful. Wind can rip off roofs and rip up trees and move and change the landscapes. Wind — powerful things are available to us to change our lives, to redo things as we submit to them. And so if you do not know much about powerful spiritual blessings, hear me — keep coming, because we're going to continue to reveal what Paul is talking about.

And I want you to take home this truth for today: it is spiritual blessings from heaven that combat evil forces from hell. It's spiritual blessings from heaven that combat evil from hell. You cannot engage in life more abundant and free if you do not have the joy of the Lord and the fruits of the Holy Spirit as a result of being in Him.

Turn to Galatians chapter 5, verse 22, and see the fruits of the Holy Spirit. All of these things are available for Christians who live a higher degree of Christian life, and those who are living a higher degree of Christian life, a more spiritual life, life in Christ, and are engaged in these spiritual things, enjoy all of the fruits of the Holy Spirit to a higher degree. And so I would say emphatically that all of you guys — ladies and girls and children, everybody — you all enjoy the fruits of the Holy Spirit to a different degree. So let's read them, and you be your own self-estimator, and see to what degree are you truly living life in Christ. What is it producing? To what degree is the fruit of the Holy Spirit right here producing in your life?

Verse 22: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control."

To what extent would you give yourself on a scale of one to ten — ten being the highest — if you went through every single one of these? Are you truly engaged in a higher degree of Christian living? You may see yourself — my graph looks like this, right? Yeah. Well, that's good news. You know where you're at, and we know how to continue to progress in the Lord.

And so I want you to know that we are all, as Christians, attacked by the evil one. He attacks us spiritually, and we cannot combat that unless we are truly in Christ. And these spiritual blessings are powerful. The armor of God is — wait for it — spiritual. And as you put on the armor of God in Ephesians chapter 6, you're fighting in the spirit and not in the flesh. This is a supernatural empowerment. It is a strengthening from the Holy Spirit that guarantee that is inside of you. He allows and enables you to do these types of things. And so if you combine God's spiritual blessings with spiritual armor —

Listen, combine God's spiritual blessings, your life in Christ, and the spiritual armor that you're to put on in chapter 6. I think you're ready for an average day as a Christian.

It's not like we're gearing up for some huge war every single day. Every day is your war against the flesh, the world, and the devil.

You've got these enemies that are coming at you, and they are thieves and they want to rob you of the most important things. And Satan will take aim and go after you. And so are you ready for an average day?

The word "spiritual" preceding "blessing" would have struck the converted Jew's curiosity. Hmm. God's chosen people Israel are certainly used to God's blessings being upon them. They take for granted the physical blessing of milk and honey in the Old Testament. I'll read it to you in Numbers chapter 14, verse 8: "If the Lord is pleased with us," into the land and give it to us — okay, so this blessing of land to Israel is something that they're used to, being blessed in the physical realm — "and a land which flows with milk and honey." Wonderful blessings — a land that is able to facilitate a large agricultural system to feed them both what they need by protein and above, and beyond the milk that they need to live, but sweetness of honey as well.

Here's what I want you also to remember: that the prosperity gospel will promise you Old Testament blessings that were designed for Israel for physical land to New Testament believers, which is supposed to be spiritual blessings, not physical blessings. And so you cannot gauge your life as to whether or not you are right with Christ upon whether you own land or if you have milk and honey, and these things and how the prosperity gospel interprets blessings. Don't miss that.

Now we are in Christ, and our attainable, tangible blessings are not physical but spiritual. And so when Paul says "every spiritual blessing," it would have struck a chord with the Jewish converts in the congregation, and they would have been thinking, "Hmm. Well, Israel's Old Testament obedience to the law brought them physical blessings." And yes, that was temporal. And the Mosaic Law included dew from heaven, abundance of crops and corn and oil and olives and milk and honey and land and children, et cetera. But now, though God still bestows physical blessings upon us, the spiritual blessings eclipse by far the physical blessings. And so you could be living in a shack and be happy in Christ. It does not mean anything as to how much you have. It depends on who you are in Christ. And these spiritual blessings far eclipse anything in the flesh, in the world. But yet, aren't we given to comparisons among people?

Our inner and higher new nature is absorbed altogether by our vibrant communication and life in Christ. Our union in Christ yields superior blessings. And my transition in life from owning a business — a landscaping business — to being called to preach and going into the ministry, that transition revealed to me how much I was engrossed in the things of this world.

Now, I kid you not, I was teaching Sunday school on Sunday morning, teaching the youth on Sunday night, and teaching no one on Wednesday night — I kid you not. The doors were open, I was there, I was vibrant in my relationship with Christ.

And God called me to preach, and I sold it all for His call. As I was transitioning from mowing to ministry, I inwardly felt so guilty for having been so invested in the things of this world. I inwardly felt, "Wow, this is terrible to be separating myself from all of my attachments to the things of this world. It's really hard." And in Christ, I've even felt guilty for being so consumed emotionally and mentally and timewise and everything. And in that transition — the why behind the what — why I work now, no matter what your occupation is, the why behind the what — you now have a new motive, a new mission, a new purpose. So why you do what you do is driven by Christ, by you in Christ. And so do everything for the glory of God.

And as I was transitioning from there to there, I just simply comprehended a higher degree of Christian living. Isaiah 40, verse 8 was one that I really gravitated to: "The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of the Lord stands forever."

That was a really cool application of thought for one who had been mowing grass for a long time.

Spiritual blessings are a spiritual endowment. It's like a payment in active form — this is one party giving something to another party. You are receiving an inherited blessing, something that is valuable. It's an endowment. The spiritual people enjoy a higher degree of love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control as we walk in Christ.

These blessings have been bestowed upon you, and so my encouragement to us all is to continue to develop the skill of abiding, John chapter 15. Continue to develop your skill of being disciplined — to study rightly the law of the Lord, to rightly divide it, be disciplined in praying, be disciplined in serving and attending and giving in the local church, be disciplined in sharing the gospel, be disciplined in your prayer life. Continue to learn what it is to abide and to live as an extension of what God is doing through you. And I promise you, as you abide and accept and submit and live in Christ, far more than anything you have ever enjoyed here in the flesh — and you will see that Psalm 45:1 will be part of who you are: "My heart overflows with a good theme." Psalm 46:8: "Come behold the works of the Lord." Psalm 47:1: "Oh, clap your hands, all peoples, shout to God with a voice of joy." And Psalm 48:1: "Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised." And Psalm 51:1: "Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your loving kindness, according to the greatness of Your compassion."

And so David, here a spiritual man of God, enjoyed the rich spiritual blessings from God. And that is the skill set that is before us — to live a higher degree of Christian living and not be satisfied with the status quo. If you take all of the churches in America, around the world, and say, "Okay, according to biblical Christianity, where are the churches? And where is American Christian living?" — it is low. Low Christian living. And so get inside of the Bible and be a biblical New Testament believer and find out where you are. Continue in the word and continue to grow. So these wonder-filled, amazing benefits are from heaven and they are in Christ.

And Ephesians, the book, contributes much to a theology of our union with Christ. The very most essential ingredient that we must be focused upon — theologians collaboratively attest to our union with Christ as the central ingredient, the most important ingredient in every theme in Ephesians. Salvation, reconciliation, the church, walking in the light, the spiritual fighting of evil — all hinge on our union in our connectedness and our dependence and our awareness and our knowledge of God, and how dedicated we are to being and dwelling, both mentally and emotionally, in Christ.

And so I repeat to you again, Acts 17:28: "In Him we live and move and exist." Aren't you glad that the Bible explains that we have confident access through faith to all of these things? And I want you to respond to the command to be filled with the Holy Spirit in Ephesians 5:18. And so our spiritual union in Christ is so valuable that the riches of this world are now comprehended as rubbish, like Paul set forth before us. The riches of this world and gaining Christ are nothing in comparison to dwelling and living with Him. "Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is," Colossians 3:1. Your life is now hidden in Christ.

If you're not a Christian, then perhaps the goodness of God has now enticed you into considering repenting of your sin and placing your faith and trust in Christ. If you're not a Christian, perhaps today you would taste and see that the Lord is good. If you're not a Christian, if you've never been saved, if you are not a believer, if you have now seen that what the Bible is saying is true and you believe, then I want to invite you to repent of yourself. The Bible says, "Repent lest you perish," in Luke 13:3. And the Bible has so much more for us to be able to learn from.

And it's been said that B-I-B-L-E is like "Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth." These things are so wonderful and are so good that anything else doesn't compare. And so first of all, you have to be in Christ in order to understand and live all of these blessings. And so again I say to you, perhaps by the preaching of the Word of God the Holy Spirit has convicted your heart, and you have comprehended that it's your sin that is holding you back. And the Bible says that in the unregenerate state, in the unsaved state, you love your sin and you don't love God, and you won't choose God. But if you would repent of your sin, God would give you a new heart. He will bless you like you could never, ever, ever comprehend. You cannot comprehend the blessings that God has for us as life in Christ while you are unregenerate. You can only think about them, but you can enjoy them as a Christian.

And so now, before we transition to our invitation, I want to give you some take-home truths. Number one: God's blessings are already upon the saved. They're there, and it's a matter of whether you are enjoying them or not. Number two: the invisible blessings are better than the visible. The invisible blessings are better. And number three: live for what you'd die for.

Live for what you would die for. And then number five: it takes heavenly weaponry to fight evil's strategies. Heavenly weaponry. These blessings are actually weapons. Your happiness in Christ, your joy in Christ, your kindness — you ever heard the phrase "kill them with kindness"? You know that these blessings from God, the ability to be kind to an enemy, to bless those who persecute you — this is a weapon. It's a wonderful weapon, because it assaults the conscience, convicts the soul, and leads them to Christ. You're not killing them with these weapons. You're blessing them. These weapons are spiritual warfare — to bless and not to curse. And you can remain strong in the Lord through engaging in these spiritual blessings. And so it's prayer, not missiles, right? It's blessings, not bombs. We fight in the spirit and we win. We fight in the flesh and we lose. James 4:7 says to resist the devil and he will flee from you.

All right, so if you're not saved, I compel you to repent and to place your faith and trust in Christ. Pray with me if you would.

Father, we thank You for today as we have continued to explore what it is to understand every spiritual blessing. And perhaps we have some saints who want to continue to grow in their faith — may they pray right now, Lord, and ask You to continue to grow them in the areas that they need, to be able to understand these spiritual blessings, to engage in them fully. Lord, perhaps even to focus on them one by one, as they in their personal time outline the rest of this doxological statement from verses 3 to 14. And may they spend personal time with You and see what it is to truly embrace life in Christ.

And I pray, God, for those who are not saved, that You would continue to save souls here at Beulah Baptist Church. And Lord, I pray for those who are saved that if they're not baptized, continue in Your word to be faithful to You, to follow You, and believers' baptism — baptism to publicly proclaim what You have already done. And God, I pray for those who have been baptized that they would join this local church and be a part — a vital part — of the life-giving ministries that You're doing here. And I pray for those who have joined that they would continue in Your word and study it rightly and learn how to dig deeper into Your word and to know You more.

And I pray, Father, for those who are already digging and studying, that they would move beyond personal Bible study to practicing what they have learned and teaching it by making disciples. And Father, for this spiritual process that You've laid out for us, to continue in Your word, I pray that You would bless us in it, that You would help us to see life spiritually and where people are on their walk with You and encourage them to the next step. And I pray, Lord, that they would view this as faithfulness to You and not anything else.

I pray that You would continue to nurture this dear flock and to grow them step by step. And it's amazing, Lord, how far we will be in just a year or two as we just take one step after another and are compliant and obedient and are abiding in You. Thank You for the spiritual richness that You have given us to feast upon, and I pray, Father, that it would just simply be something that would cause the flock to want to go back home to dwell with You more and to continue to learn this passage, what it is to abide in every spiritual blessing, to accept that which has already been conferred upon us, to cash in this endowment, to live it out, and to be fully engaged as a true Christian. Oh, we love You. We ask these blessings upon us, God, for our sake and Your glory, in Jesus' name, amen.