Sand Mountain Sermonette 49
Ephesians 1:7-8(a); Psalm 24:1-2; I John 1:9; Philippians 3:20
Sand Mountain Sermonette 49
Who Is the Richest Person in the World?
“In Him (Christ) we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us.” Ephesians 1:7-8(a)
If I understand correctly, the answer to this question in the natural world, when it comes to property and assets, would be that most famous “Queen” who lives in Europe. However, when it really comes to “everything,” David tells us in Psalm 24:1-2, The earth is the Lord’s and all it contains, the world, and those who dwell in it. For He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.”
When I was sixteen years old, I knew deep down inside that my life was headed in the wrong direction. No matter how I appeared on the outside, I felt empty and often alone way-down deep in the parts other people couldn’t see, but God knew about them. You see, God’s love is a searching love, for God in His grace, mercy, and goodness, lined things up for me to attend a Billy Graham Evangelistic Crusade with my mom, grandmother Iris, and some other relatives at the stadium where the Crimson Tide play their home football games located in Birmingham, Alabama. And that night when Reverend Graham asked in his familiar way, “Won’t you come?” I felt the Holy Spirit tug on the strings of my heart, and I stepped out and walked down a long flight of stairs to the center of the field where I surrendered my heart and life to Jesus Christ along with some other folks of all ages. And I can tell you, since that time God has been so patiently and lovingly shaping and molding me into the person He created me to be which at its essence, is to bear the love, forgiveness, and hope found in Jesus Christ to others who are lost and searching so hard to find the meaning and purpose of life itself as I was. And here is the really, really, neat part. I can also tell you that I have sinned and come short of the glory of God many times since age sixteen and the most decisive moment of my life experience that evening in Birmingham. But the riches of the Lord’s grace is greater than my sin and my mistakes in life even after becoming a Christian! Paul says the grace of God has been lavished upon us, (See I John 1:9).
You see, God is not expecting you to have it all together in order to enter into a relationship with Him through the doorway of His Son: enough intelligence, enough success, enough money to make your life complete. He just wants you to come to him as you are, repenting of the sin-disease that separates you from Him that only He can remove by the precious cleansing blood of His Son, and, in doing so, to believe in faith that He is who He says He is, and that He loves you if you had been the only person on the planet.
Who is the richest person in the world? You are! First, as God’s word declares, “For God so loved the world…” (John 3:16) and second, because Jesus never turned away anyone who came to Him seeking entrance into His Father’s Kingdom (Check out John’s Gospel, Chapter Three). Any person “in Christ” in the richest person in the world now and in the new world to come for the Bible says, “our citizenship is in heaven” (See Philippians 3:20).
Pastor Louie