Evan Wilkerson continues this Ephesians series by tracing the wealth every believer already owns in Christ, showing through Horatio Stafford's shipwreck, the prodigal son's return, and the picture of an orphan adopted into royalty that spiritual blessing runs so much deeper than anything money or circumstance could ever provide.

Main Points:

  • Horatio Stafford lost all four of his daughters in a shipwreck, and while sailing over the very spot where they drowned, he wrote It Is Well with My Soul. That kind of peace is only possible when Jesus Christ remains your greatest treasure even after every earthly treasure is gone.
  • Blessing God means more than saying nice words about him. It means becoming a living embodiment of praise, worshiping him with your behavior because he is worth it, not because you're trying to earn something from him.
  • God blesses everyone through common grace, sun and rain on the just and unjust alike, but the spiritual blessings found only in Christ are infinitely richer. A new heart is better than a new car. To feed on Christ is better than the best earthly food. These blessings can never perish.
  • Being chosen in Christ means being set apart to become holy and blameless, not overnight, but the way a plant grows. You won't see change by staring at it today, but keep feeding on Jesus, and years from now, people will ask what's different about you.
  • Adoption as sons in the first century meant receiving the firstborn's full rights, resources, and inheritance. Picture an orphan on a trash heap in India, suddenly brought into a wealthy father's home, loved, fed, listened to, celebrated. That is what it means to be adopted by God, not made rich in earthly terms but loved to the very core of your identity.
  • In the prodigal son story, the father doesn't wait for an apology or make the son grovel. He sees him a long way off, runs to him, and lavishes him with the best robe, a ring, and a feast. That is God's heart for anyone still far from him right now.
  • Grace is different from mercy. Mercy means not receiving the wrath sinners deserve. Grace means receiving the blessings sinners could never earn. This wealth cost the Son everything on the cross and cost the Father his most beloved possession, and because it was purchased with that blood, it can never be taken away.


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