Our world seems to be falling apart all around us. World powers are posturing against one another. Nations are attempting to eliminate their neighbors. Governments are oppressing their citizens. Children are killing each other on the streets and in the schools. Yet these are not the most destructive forces in our world. The most destructive force that is tearing our world apart is the breakdown of the family. Families are falling apart all around us. However, for the most part the Church stands by and does nothing.

Jill and John Smith married about three years ago. Both came from broken homes. Both were determined that they were going to make the marriage work - that they would not repeat the mistakes of their parents. But lately there has been more tension in their relationship. They are finding it harder and harder to stop the anger and resentment that is building inside them. And more and more they are using the "D" word.

Both Jill and John began attending a church just after they married. They liked the people and started making friends. But as the troubles in their marriage began to boil over into other relationships, most of those friends began to draw back. And as for the church, besides a few pastoral visits, the leadership was at a loss as to what they could do about the Smiths.

We all know someone like the Smiths. Our community is full of families just like them. And it is sad to say it, but the Church too often assumes there is no power in heaven or on earth that can help these families in crisis. If it is not divorce, maybe it’s a still-born child, or a teenager who was arrested. Maybe it is an adult child who is struggling to care for an elderly parent or a family who has lost their income due to layoffs.

Why is it that we believe we are unable to help these families? Why do we feel so helpless when families are in crisis? I believe the reason we are too weak to help is that we don’t know about our "blessings" or, worse yet, we really don’t really believe we are blessed.

The Ephesian church seems to have been going through these same doubts. In the later chapters in the book of Ephesians Paul shows those Christians some principles for dealing with crisis. But before dealing with the specific situations, Paul wanted his readers to know that they can find strength and comfort in the midst of the daily struggles of life – even in the midst of a family crisis – because they were given spiritual blessings in Christ.

In Ephesians 1:3 Paul says "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." In this verse Paul is telling us that the Ephesian Christians had been granted all of the spiritual blessings that belong to and come from heaven. What are these spiritual blessings? Well, Paul outlines four types of spiritual blessings that God provided the Ephesian believers.

First, Paul said that those who are united with Christ receive the spiritual blessing of holiness. In verse 4 he said "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight." Paul is telling the Ephesian Christians that they were chosen to be holy. This promise is awesome. It is awesome to think that God had chosen the Ephesian Christians to be holy. Notice that God did not choose them because they were holy but to be holy. That is what makes this a blessing and not a burdensome obligation. But this doesn’t mean it is not hard work. Holiness – to be perfect and blameless – requires a life-long process called sanctification. It is a continual transformation of moral and spiritual character. It is the potential of all Christians.

One of the things you find about this process as you grow in your faith is that it actually becomes more difficult as you clean out the flaws in your life. It is like the garden I started one year. We wanted to grow some peas, lettuce, tomatoes and other assorted vegetables. Once we located a spot in the yard, I got to work digging down into the soil to loosen it up. I spent hours removing large rocks and roots from the 10’ x 20’ plot. But once I was done I could then begin adding in the peat moss, fertilizers, lime and other items to enrich the soil.

As I began adding these items and turning the soil I began to notice a lot of stones. I then had to spend more hours removing stones. Once the additives were mixed in, I could begin to rake the area level and then hill-up the rows. Wouldn’t you know, as I raked the soil, more and more stones and pebbles began to appear. Again, I had to stop to pick up these stones and pebbles. Where had they come from? They were there all along. I just hadn’t seen them before. I was too busy taking care of the bigger, more noticeable problems.

The same is true of our Christian lives. We spend the first part of it digging out the boulders and roots – the big sins in our lives. Then we begin to notice the smaller stones – the sins that were always there but we hadn’t considered before. So we work to rid ourselves of them. But even after all that work, we find many more pebbles – tiny little annoying problems of which we seem to have no end.

But the wonderful thing about God is that because of the sacrifice of Christ, He sees Jesus’ holiness, not our own. Sure, one day we will be completely holy and blameless before God, but even now we can claim the spiritual blessing of being holy and blameless in God’s sight because we are covered by Jesus’ holiness. As Christians, when God looks at us He sees Jesus and the sacrifice He made on our behalf.

Not only do Christians have the spiritual blessing of holiness, but there is also a second type of blessing found in this text. Paul said that those who are united with Christ receive the spiritual blessing of adoption. He continues in verse 4 saying, "In love he predestined us to be adopted 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." Paul wanted the Ephesian Christians to know that because of God’s great love for them, he adopted them to be his children.

Adoption was a common practice of that day especially among the upper class Greeks and Romans. Those who were adopted into a family, not only had their needs cared for but were given all the rights and obligations of a natural child of that family.

Gerald Penix writes, "My wife and I waited 15 years for a child that never came by the natural way. However we were approached one day with a lead of a newborn. I remember standing in front of the judge on our day of adoption. He pointed his finger and asked of me, "Is anyone coercing you to adopt this little boy?" After we had assured him that we were doing so out of love for our son, he made this statement. ‘From today on, he is your son. He may disappoint you, even grieve you but he is your son. Everything you own one day will be his and he will bear your name.’ Then he looked to the clerk and gave this command. ‘So order a change in this child’s birth certificate and may it reflect that these are the parents of this child.’

"It was then that I realized that my Heavenly Father loved me so much that, without coercion, He loved me and gave His all to me. On that day, He changed my name and I gladly bear His name and His image."

As Christians, we too are adopted by God to be His children. Not due to anything we have done or who we are but despite what we have done or who we are. Who we were in the past is now forgotten - our names are changed and we are called children of God. Adoption into the family of God is a spiritual blessing granted to undeserving people solely because of God’s love for us. In Christ we have found our true identity.

But, not only do Christians have the spiritual blessing of adoption, there is also a third type of blessing found in this text. Paul said that those who are united with Christ receive the spiritual blessing of redemption. In verse 7 he said, "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God’s grace…" Paul wanted the Ephesian Christians to know that they were redeemed – the ransom was paid.

Paul showed the contrast of the Ephesians’ past moral and spiritual condition in the second chapter. He told them that before they were Christians they were dead in their sins and that "the ruler of the kingdom of the air" had control of their lives. Chapter 2 verse 4 says "But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive in Christ even when we were dead in transgressions…" Even though they were still living in sin, God chose to pay the price to free them from sin and death.

A story is told of a young boy named Tom who spent many long hours building a sailboat. He had it all fixed up, tarred, painted and ready to go. He took it to the lake and pushed it in hoping it would sail. Sure enough a wisp of breeze filled the little sail and it billowed and went rippling along the waves. Suddenly before the little boy knew it, the boat was out of his reach, even though he waded in fast and tried to grab it. As he watched it float away, he hoped maybe the breeze would shift and it would come sailing back to him. Instead he watched it go farther and farther until it was gone. All afternoon he searched along the sandy shore for the boat. Finally, when it was too dark to look any longer, Tom sadly went home. When he got home, his mother asked, "What’s wrong, didn’t it work?" And he said, "It worked too well."

A few days later, on the way home from school, Tom spotted a boat just like his in a store window. When he got closer, he could see—sure enough—it was his! He hurried to the store manager: "Sir, that’s my boat in your window! I made it!" He walked to the window, picked it up and started to leave with it. The owner of the shop said, "Wait a minute, Sonny. That’s my boat. I bought it from someone." The boy said, "No, it’s my boat. I made it. See." And he showed him the little scratches and the marks where he hammered and filed. The man said, "I’m sorry, Sonny. If you want it, you have to buy it for one dollar." Tom ran home and counted all his money. Exactly one dollar! When he reached the store, he rushed to the counter. "Here’s the money for my boat." As he left the store, Tom hugged his boat and said, "Now you’re twice mine. First, I made you and now I bought you."

As Christians, we are twice God’s – first because He made us and second because He bought us. We have the spiritual blessing of redemption through the blood of Christ – the exact price of our sin – not because we were worthy of His love but just because of His love. We can be sure of our position because of the redemption we have in Christ.

Not only do Christians have the spiritual blessing of redemption but there is a fourth type of blessing in this text. Paul said that those who are united with Christ receive the spiritual blessing of wisdom. Beginning in verse 8 he said "that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And 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 will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ." Paul told the Ephesian Christians that God had blessed them with a wisdom that could understand the mysteries of the universe. This wisdom would help them cope with the crisis that would come in their lives because it would give them a divine perspective on the situations with which they needed to deal.

In 1873, Horatio Spafford, a Christian lawyer from Chicago, placed his wife and four children on the luxury liner Ville de Havre sailing from New York to France. Spafford expected to join them in three or four weeks after finishing business, but with the exception of his wife he never saw them again. The trip started out beautifully. But on the evening of November 21, 1873, as the Ville de Havre proceeded peacefully across the Atlantic, the ship was suddenly struck by another vessel, the Lochearn, and sank a mere thirty minutes later, with the loss of nearly all on board.

On being told that the ship was sinking Mrs. Spafford knelt with her children and prayed that they might be saved or be made willing to die, if such was God’s will. A few minutes later, in the confusion, three of the children were swept away by the waves while she stood clutching the youngest. Suddenly the youngest child was swept from her arms. Mrs. Spafford became unconscious and awoke later to find that she had been rescued by sailors from the Lochearn. But the four children were gone.

Back in the United States, Horatio Spafford was awaiting news of his family, and ten days later (after the rescue ship had reached Cardiff), it came. "Saved alone" was his wife’s message. That night Spafford walked the floor of his room in anguish, as anyone would have done. As he shared his loss with his Lord, a loss which could not be reversed in this life, he found, as many have, that peace which indeed passes all understanding. Toward morning he told a friend, "I am glad to be able to trust my Lord when it costs me something." Sometime later, as he reflected on the disaster at sea, he wrote this hymn "It Is Well With My Soul".

To our world this sounds like foolishness. How could anyone have peace in the midst of a loss so great? Yet over and over we read in the Bible and in the writings of Christians down through the ages how the wisdom of God has helped them gain a new perspective of what seems meaningless to the world. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 1:18 "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." It is the wisdom of God that we gain through the message of the gospel that gives us the hope and peace that surpasses all of our human understanding. With the blessing of wisdom we have the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Friends,