Riches galore

Not just the stock market is booming

Photo by Zlaťáky.cz on Unsplash

Do you ever take notes during Sunday sermons?

Sometimes I do. Sometimes, I admit, I’m making a shopping list. But this past Sunday, Jan. 4, I listened carefully. I later texted our preacher that day to tell him “it was the best sermon I’d ever heard him give!”

He spoke on Ephesians 1:3-14

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth in Him.

In Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory. In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory.

Please don’t skip over it or skim it. Go back and re-read it if you merely scanned it the first time.

I linger upon the word “lavish” in the verse “In Him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us….” Isn’t that a wonderful word? It just sounds like the tongue bath of an overeager Golden Retriever who leaps all over you, dying to show you how much he loves you. (Ok, I realize I just compared God to a golden - but you know what I mean. Frankly, I think God loves goldens just as much as we do.) The word gushes overflowing abundance. That’s how much God loves us.

Our pastor gave us three questions to consider:

• Am I resting in God’s perfect plan? Or am I struggling with the outcome of my personal experience?

• Am I living out the spiritual nature of God in my everyday life?

• Am I looking forward to God’s generous inheritance?

Father Garman was emphatic about this: “Everything we own now is garbage 🗑️compared to the generous inheritance God has for us.”

God’s great inheritance is the one thing that will satisfy.

Better than a roaring stock market. That can be gone in a downturn. Better than all the homes you can own - you can’t take it with you! No one has ever seen a U-Haul behind a hearse.

Sometimes when I get anxious about money, I remember something that a former pastor of mine once said, when asked about how he managed during hard times. “Well, my father owns the cattle on a thousand hills,” he said. “I’ll just ask him to sell a few head.”

From Sunday’s sermon, there are three things to remember:

1. God’s providential choice

2. God’s predestined plan

3. God’s lavish provision