“We Already Have It”

**INTRODUCTION 

Hello and welcome to “Key to the Kingdom.” My name is Bret McCasland. Have you ever received a very special gift from someone and forgotten to say thank you? Oh, I suppose that happens from time to time. We simply forget. We might even be so excited to receive the gift that we overlook the sacrifice that was made by the one who gave us the gift. Well, as we all know, it is important to express our thanks and gratitude when we receive a gift. That is especially true when it comes to the gift of salvation. Sometimes we do not live as if we are thankful for what the Lord has already given to us. We might not be aware of them, or even forget those spiritual blessings and how they bless our lives in so many ways. Well, today on “Key to the Kingdom,” we will look at a listing of the gifts God gives to those who are part of His family. We will consider how truly blessed we are and the fact that we need absolutely nothing more than what we already have in Jesus; and for those who are Christians and have received that spiritual gift, many blessings await. I hope you will join us for this Bible study today as we consider who we are, and our identity, which comes from a relationship with the Lord. I encourage you now to open up your heart and your Bible as we study together.

**LESSON 

Have you ever been at a place in your life where you had everything you needed? You had everything that was worth having. You had all of the money and the house and the cars and the clothes and everything else you could possibly need or use. In other words, you were in great shape and you lacked for absolutely nothing. Well, my guess is probably not. There's always something lacking in our life, physically. Now, we may know of some people who can say that, but that might not be true for most of us. But then that leads to another question. Can we say that about our spiritual lives? We have everything we need and we lack for absolutely nothing, through our relationship with Jesus Christ and our loving Heavenly Father. The letter of Ephesians tells us that is exactly what happens to those who are part of God's family. We have everything we need. In the first chapter, the Apostle Paul reminds us of who we are in Christ Jesus. We have been entrusted with all of the spiritual blessings and promises God can possibly give to us, this side of eternity; and therefore we lack for nothing. We have everything we need as a child of God. I want us to take a moment and read that passage of Scripture, which is found in that first chapter, as we begin with verse 3. <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. For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us for adoption to sonship 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. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment -to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. In Him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of His glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession -to the praise of His glory.> What a great passage of Scripture. And we find in it, three times, that we are to live to the praise of God's glory. As we think about that Scripture, I'm reminded of the seven “I am” statement that Jesus made, and are recorded in the Gospel of John. He said things like, “I am the way, the truth and the life;” “I am, the light of the world;” “I am the door for the sheep.” We're familiar with those “I am” statements. Well, here in this passage we have five, or seven, different statements that Paul makes in regards to who we are in Christ. Maybe you notice them as we read through it. Paul said, “I am blessed. I am chosen. I am God's adopted child. I am redeemed. I am forgiven. I am part of God's plan for this world,” and, “I am sealed with the Holy Spirit of God.” When I think about all of those things, I realize, indeed, God has entrusted that to me as a child of God; and you can say the same thing. This is who we are. There are no spiritual blessings which God withholds from those who are part of His family. This is our identity. And yet, sometimes I think we forget that. We overlook the spiritual blessings which God has already entrusted to us. And I believe that we overlook that because there is a problem. And here's the problem: When Satan is nearby, he limits our ability to see God's goodness and blessings. Satan has been called the prince of this world, and indeed he is. His influence keeps popping up from time to time in various aspects of our lives. And when that happens, our attention is diverted. Our eyes are focused on Satan and those evil influences of the world instead of being focused on the blessings we have in Jesus Christ. But sometimes we just forget that. And we forget that Satan has already been defeated and we are to live in victory over him. We know that from 1st John 4, verse 4: <He who is in us greater than he who is in this world.> Yes, God is at work in this world. He is at work through your life and through mine to do good things in this world. And indeed, God wants good things to happen in all aspects of our life, both physically and spiritually. And when that doesn't happen as we think it should, we sometimes wonder what went wrong? How come this happened? How come that did not happen? We might even blame our problems on someone else. We might look with envy upon those who seem to have no problems at all in their life. We might even think we are entitled to certain things which appear to bring great joy or great pleasure to other people. But then another thing it might be, and this is something I think we sometimes overlook, is our belief in our doubt is greater than our faith. Satan may have blinded us to what God has already done in us, and so we cannot appreciate what we already have in Jesus Christ because we are focused on the things of this world. And that's the essence of Ephesians chapter 1. That's what Paul is trying to get us to remember, to understand; that he wants us to focus on the many ways in which God, through Jesus Christ, has already blessed our lives. And when we do realize that, we understand that we have enough of whatever we need. And once that is recognized, once that is believed, then we live in faith. We survive by our faith. Our faith in Jesus Christ is at the core of who we are. And when that happens, we can live without Satan's influence impacting our lives in a negative way. Now, I'll restate all of that this way: There is no reason to allow unbelief or doubt or Satan's influence to override our belief in God. And that is one of the most important and basic parts of a Christian's life. You know, on a regular basis, Christians come together to be reminded of who we are in Jesus Christ. We come together in churches and congregations of God's people all over the world to celebrate the blessings we have of being part of God's family. And that's important because the church is a community of faith. It is a group of believers. It is the body of Christ, which the Lord has been put together all by Himself. And as such, we stand against the evils and the influences of Satan. Now, if we do not believe that is important, then we will face some difficult challenges as Satan tries to deceive us and to devour us. And since that is true, we can readily receive what God is sending our way. In other words, our antenna is up, our receiver is on, and we can receive all of the power and the strength and the ability and the gifts that God is willing to give to us. Sometimes we have an antenna up so that we can receive reception for our television and watch certain programs. We make sure that our receiver on the television is in tune with that antenna. And all of that works together well. And we enjoy that process of receiving those TV shows and watching them. But when that antenna goes down or when something is wrong with a receiver on the television, then we're upset. It doesn't work well. The same is true spiritually! When our antenna is not is not up and when our receiver is not on, to receive what God is sending our way, we're consumed by Satan. We are deceived by the things of this world. You know, there is a really big danger we have to avoid: As long as we think we can live without more of God, we will. And if we desire to not live with the faith God has already entrusted to us, then we will not grow in our faith. We will not mature as children of the Lord. When that happens, we will remain immature and even worldly, as Paul wrote to those Christians in 1st Corinthians. We might even question whether or not God is acting up on our behalf. We might even wonder if we will ever have a mature and strong faith. And yet, on the other hand, those things will never happen if we exercise the faith that we already have; if we exercise and tap in to those spiritual blessings which have already been entrusted to us, through our relationship with Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. You know, God wants us to recognize the power and the blessings He has already given to His children, to His sons and daughters. I think about one of the greatest blessings ever is that He has transferred us out of the kingdom of darkness and into the Kingdom of Light, Colossians 1 and verse 13. Everything we need as a child of God is already within us. There is nothing we need in this world, or in the world to come, that God has not already given. The Apostle Paul also wrote a letter to Philemon, and he scolded him for not accepting with open arms one of Paul's friends, a man by the name of Onesimus. And in the midst of correcting Philemon in his prior actions, he encouraged him, also, with these words in verse 6 of that chapter. <I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.> Now we understand the first part of that sentence, don't we: Be active in sharing your faith with other people. That makes sense. But I really like the second part of that passage, also: Have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ. Well, that applies to us. We are to have a full understanding of the blessings God has given to us. And when we don't consider, appreciate or celebrate what we already have in Jesus Christ then we are already missing out on something very special. But when we have that full understanding of all the good things that God has given to us, it is then that we will live out our faith. Our eyes will be opened. Our hearts will be enlightened to the inheritance already entrusted to us. And as a result, we will then share that good news with others. I want to go back to Ephesians and pick up another passage of Scripture, beginning in chapter 2 and verse 1; and Paul continues on with this same type of teaching. He wrote, <As for you, you were dead in transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us, at one time, lived in them, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions -it is by grace you have been saved.> Well, thankfully, those first three verses don't apply to us any longer; and I'm glad. I'm glad we are not dead in our transgressions, that we are not following the ways of the prince of the air, Satan himself. All of that is past tense because Satan is not a part of our lives anymore as Christians. At one time we were dead in our sins, according to verse 1, but now with God's love and mercy, through that, we have been made alive in Jesus Christ, verse 5. And that breaks Satan's power. It's not there anymore. Our lives are not dominated by fleshly things and worldly things. Instead, we are made alive. We are saved. We are raised up and seated with Jesus. We continue on with four more verses here: <And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith -and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God -not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.> In that passage we find, two times - in verse 1 and also in verse 6, the phrase, "dead in our sins." But then also we find two times -in verses 7 and 8, this phrase, "saved by grace." There is a big contrast between the two, isn't there; dead in our sins or saved by the grace of God. And I am so thankful that as Christians we can claim the last part of that passage. We are saved by God's grace through our faith in His son, Jesus Christ. And there is a combination, faith and grace both are important. God's grace apart from our faith will not save us. Our faith in Jesus, apart from God's grace, will not save us either. Both are important. Here is a point, an important point that I want to make: Faith is not something we do to make God move. In other words, reading and studying the Bible and acting upon God's Word, they are all involved in the faith process. But in and of themselves, they are not faith. They are simply demonstrations of the faith we already have in Jesus Christ. And even our baptism into Christ is an act of faith based upon our belief that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And so those, and many other such things, are demonstrations of the faith that we have in Jesus, of the faith that saves us through the grace of God. And so faith magnifies what God has already done. Faith is our positive response to what God has provided for us through His grace. Faith reaches out and takes hold of all the spiritual blessings God has already given to us. And so then our lives are transformed when we realize and when we activate the faith we already have. You know, lots of people throughout the world spend lots of time pursuing lots of things that seem to make them happy in this world. They want to get as much as they possibly can get of that which brings some kind of happiness to their lives. And they spend their time and their energies pursuing those things, which will last only for a short period of time. But there is really only one thing worth pursuing, and that is a right standing with God through our relationship with Jesus Christ. And when we get that right, we have everything we need. We have all the spiritual blessings. We have all of the spiritual promises God can possibly give to His children. And there is nothing better than that! And when we live by the faith already entrusted to us, as children of God, the setbacks, problems, the difficulties and the challenges we face in life will not set us back. And that is some really good news! We have everything we need to live a victorious life in Jesus Christ. And there's absolutely nothing, in all of this world, that will bring a greater measure of joy or happiness into our life than what has already been given; and I hope we remember that! The Apostle Paul wrote this passage, also in Ephesians chapter 3, and this seems to be a great summary of what he had been trying to tell us here in the first two chapters. Beginning with verse 20, he offered this: <Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly that we could ever ask for or imagine, according to His power that is at work in us, to Him be glory in the church and in His Son Christ Jesus, both now & forevermore. Amen.> God has given us great power. He has identified us as His children and the power we have to live victorious lives is already there, and it is greater power than we could ever imagine, think about or even explain. With all of that in mind, I would encourage us to consider the many blessings God has already given, to take hold of those blessings, to enjoy those blessings, to think about how truly blessed we really are, and to live a life that gives glory and honor to the Lord our God who saves us through Jesus Christ, His son.

**VIDEO CLIP

Inside bank buildings like this one, there is lots of money and we know that. We go to the bank in order to draw out some money that is in our name, or we go to the bank to take out a loan, to buy a house, a car or some other needs. But the bottom line is, the bank has all the money we need, or at least we think they do. And I think about that idea in real life as well. Wouldn't it be nice to have all the money you need, or all of the friends you would ever need? Would it not be nice to have all of the physical things in life you might need all at one time, and you lack nothing else? Well, I suppose that sort of thing is just not possible. And yet it is possible, spiritually. As children of God we have everything we need, through our relationship with Jesus Christ. And as part of God's family, He has entrusted to us, He has given to us everything we need. God has given to us every spiritual blessing and every spiritual promise. We even read, in Ephesians chapter 1, we are seated with Him in the heavenly realms. In other words, we already have it. There is nothing lacking in our life spiritually if we are a child of God. When I think about that, I realize God really does love us to the point He gives us everything and we lack nothing. And that reminds me that I am indeed very, very blessed. I would encourage you, today, as you think about having everything you already need in Jesus Christ, be thankful for that. Pause for a moment and tell Him how much you appreciate His love for you.

**CONCLUSION

Thank you for joining us today on this broadcast from “Key to the Kingdom.” From time to time, we simply need a reminder of our identity. It is important to remember who we are in Jesus Christ and the many spiritual blessings and promises which have been entrusted to us. If you would like to hear this message again, it is available on our website, keytothekingdom.com, and it can be downloaded in a variety of different formats. Many other lessons are on the site as well, and they might be of interest to you also. One minute and two minute short devotional thoughts are available and they are designed to help you in your daily and spiritual walk with the Lord. All of these Bible messages and studies are updated on a regular basis and I hope that they will bless you spiritually. It is our privilege to share these messages on a weekly basis with you, and I'm always grateful for your support and encouragement. Please tune in again next time, as we continue to study the Bible on “Key to the Kingdom.”