PENTECOST
10
August
1-3, 2026
Pastor
Timothy J. Spaude
Text:
Ephesians 1:3-10
“IT’S A WONDERFUL
LIFE!”
1.
Loved.
2.
Lavished.
3.
Led
The Bible sometimes presents us with two
facts that seem to contradict each other and yet both remain true. Law and
Gospel are the most obvious example. The Law of God clearly states that all
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and the wages of sin is death.
The Gospel just as clearly states God so loved the world that He have His one
and only Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal
life. One says your place in in Hell. The other that your place is in heaven.
Seem to contradict. Both are true. Here is another. The life of a Christian
will be hard. Jesus clearly says that if anyone would come after Him, he must
take up His cross and follow. Cross, not power recliner. Cross, not Sleep Number
or Beauty Rest mattress. This is so true. If you are making an effort to
faithfully follow Christ it is hard. It’s hard to put down your pride and act truly
Christlike toward others. It takes work to prioritize your life on Jesus’
priorities and to fight the many temptations we daily face. At the same time
the life of a Christian is a blessed life. Jesus said, “Blessed, that is, made
happy, are those who hear the word of God and keep it.” Seems to contradict.
Both are true. But lest we wallow in self pity at sacrifices we make to follow
Jesus let’s focus on the second truth, how blessed we are to be Christians. I
know, I know, I missed Christmas in July by one weekend but I’m going there any
way. Christian, It’s a Wonderful life!
It’s a life where we are loved by God in a
way that goes beyond our comprehension. The Apostle Paul pointed to that love
in his letter to the church at Ephesus. “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. 4For He chose us in Him before the
creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love 5He
predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance
with His pleasure and will—6to the praise of His glorious grace,
which He has freely given us in the One He loves.” To highlight the fact
that God works on the basis of grace, love that can’t be earned, Paul praises
God for what we have come to call Predestination, or the Election of grace.
This refers to the fact that God loves you so much, even before He created this
world, He chose you to be His own. He determined ahead of time that He would
adopt you into the family of faith in spite of the many sins He knew you would
commit against Him. That is how loved you are!
Now some of you are going to take this
wonderful truth of God that gives us a wonderful life and ruin it for yourself.
You will start thinking, “Well, if God chose me before the creation of the
world and predestined me to be adopted into His family, that means I can do
what I want and sin as I want and what I do does not matter.” Or “Does that
mean He did not choose some others? Did God predestine some people to go to
Hell?” Knock it off! You are trying to make the Almighty God whose thoughts are
as higher than your thoughts and ways above your ways as the heavens are above
the earth accountable to your way of thinking which is guided by corrupted human
reason. All you are doing is exposing your arrogance and failing to listen to
the voice of God Almighty. Focus on what He clearly says. He loves you. He
chose you. He did this even though He knew Jesus would have to be punished for
your sins. No one, not even dogs, love their people that much. But God loves
you that much and more. Others can and have loved you and then taken that love
away. God will not. Others can and have loved you only to use you, to take from
you. God loves you so He can give to you. You are His and it’s a wonderful life
when you are loved like that.
It’s a wonderful life where we are
lavished with blessings! “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the
forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8that
He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.” Those of you who have
had the unfortunate experience of eating with me know that when it comes to the
sauces I like it thick. Chicken wings? No dry rub. Sauce ‘em up! Beer battered
fish fry and you bring out one little container or tartar sauce? Are you
kidding me? Who does that? Keep that tartar coming. Pancakes. Don’t bring me
syrup in a teacup. Leave the pitcher. Taco sauce, nacho cheese, barbeque on the
ribs. Chick Fil A sauce. I like it lavished on. Now my excuse for this behavior
is this. I’m just treating my food like my God treats me, and you too!
It’s a wonderful life we have where God
lavishes us with His blessings. He pours it on thick. Now because we are all a
little spiritually immature our first thought will be to think of the blessings
we see. God has lavished those on us too. The fact that I could mention all
those different kinds of food and you could relate is proof. So are our closets
and cars and toys. As is the fact that we have such a nice tabernacle while we
wait for the Temple to be redone. If you feel like rolling your eyes at me
because you are experiencing money problems, I need you to understand that you
do not have a money problem, you have a spending problem. And no matter how
much God gives you, you will burn through it until you deal with your real
problem. So let’s talk about real riches our Lord has lavished on us.
Redemption. Forgiveness. Grace. His wisdom. All the clothes in your closet
cannot hide your sinfulness but the robe of Christ’s righteousness does. If you
liquidated all your assets, you could not pay for one sin but Jesus paid for
them all for you. The finest mansion money can buy is but a pigsty compared to
the one Jesus prepared for you and is yours because you are lavished with
redemption and forgiveness. You can pay for all the relationship advice you
want but it will not top the wisdom God has lavished you with, “Love one
another. As I have loved you so you must love one another.” It’s a wonderful life
where God lavishes us with all the most important blessings and a whole bunch
more too.
And where we are led by Christ Himself.
“And He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good
pleasure, which He purposed in Christ, 10to be put into effect when
the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and
on earth together under one Head, even Christ.” When the Bible uses the
word “mystery” it means something that has to be revealed by God. People will
not come up with it on their own. What does God reveal here? All things in
heaven and on earth are under one Head. Jesus Christ. Jesus rules. Jesus leads
us and all things. It’s a wonderful life when you live conscious of this truth.
“What me—worry?” was the tagline of Mad Magazine’s Alfred E Neuman character.
In its positive spin it describes a person who does not get bent out of shape
over things that happen in life—especially those things out of your control.
Because Jesus is the head of all things, your leader, it gets to be yours. From
the world bending events like the Russia/Ukraine War to Iran and the Strait of
Hormuz. From mid term elections to the price of a gallon of gas. From the Dow
Jones to where my next paycheck will come from. From the health of the country
to the health of my body. You do what God allows you to do but, what me worry?
With Christ as head? When I and all things are led by Jesus. No way! Since we are
led by Jesus, it’s a wonderful life!
But not the best life. There it is again.
Two things God tells us as facts that seem to contradict but both are true.
Life in this world is wonderful when we realized how much we are loved, how
much has been lavished on us and that we are led. But it is not our best life.
There is still sin, hurt, loss, disappointment and pain. So hold on to your
fork. One of our members long since in heaven repeated that story every time we
visited. He wanted to be buried with a fork in his hand. Why? As his mom would
clear the dishes from the supper table she would tell the kids, “Hold on to
your fork, the best is yet to come.” She meant dessert. He was looking forward to
heaven. Because of Jesus, you and I get to as well. Then our wonderful life
will get perfectly better. Amen.
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