August 15 2025

Friday August 15

Saints and Faithful in Christ Jesus

Ephesians 1:1-3

1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and faithful in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

I remember when I was a child growing up in a family that was very poor. Matter of fact, I felt like we were so poor down in Texas that the poor people called us poor. I like to tell how actually I can remember going to the cotton fields as a kid, I mean a young kid, picking cotton with all my brothers and sisters and my mom and dad so we could have money to buy clothes for school in the fall. I'll never forget that. And I remember dreaming over and over again, “Oh, one day I'm going to grow up and I'm going to be rich. I'm not going be poor like this all my life and not have anything.”

Well, I tell you what, my friend. The moment I found Jesus Christ as a 19-year-old teenager, I became the richest person in the universe in Christ. And that's what Ephesians is about: knowing and understanding the riches of the glory the His inheritance that I have in Jesus Christ. And that's why these three verses are so powerful to help us begin to understand what we need to learn and know from this book.

Verse 1 tells us that Paul is an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and that he is writing this epistle “to the saints who are in Ephesus and faithful in Christ Jesus.” The word saints there is a very important word. It's a word that's used at least nine times in the book of Ephesians. The word saint actually means “one who has been set apart”. Somebody that's been sanctified. Somebody that's been made holy. The moment you received Jesus Christ, you were set apart for by the Holy Spirit for Christ and for His glory (Romans 6:3).

I mean all the riches in Christ were set apart for you in Christ at that moment. And so when we trust Christ in a sense we're taken out of this world and we're placed in Christ in a heavenly world, we can enjoy heaven on earth. We do not have to wait for the sweet by and by. And you were set apart to go to heaven one day. It's so sad that many of us do not understand or recognize the riches we have in Christ.

It kind of reminds me of the story I read recently of Hetty Green who lived from 1834 to 1916. When she died she was worth over $100 million. In our money today, that would be $2.5 billion. She was called the witch of Wall Street. In the Guinness Book of World Records, she's called America's greatest miser. It's reported that she ate cold oatmeal because it cost to heat it. She ate mostly pies that cost 15 cents. She was said never to turn on the heat or use hot water. She wore one old black dress and undergarments that she changed only after they had been worn out. She did not wash her hands and she rode in an old carriage. One tale claims that Green spent half a night searching her carriage for a lost stamp worth two cents. Another asserts that she instructed her laundress to wash only the dirtiest part of her dresses, the hems, to save money on soap. The sad thing is she had a son that had to suffer a leg amputation because she delayed in taking so long looking for a free clinic that his case became incurable.

How sad. But a sadder fact is the fact that there are so many Christians that are living miserable lives because they do not know about and understand the riches they have in Christ. I've often said the most miserable people in the world are not lost people. They're enjoying the pleasures of sin for the few moments they might have with it. It's the Christian who can't enjoy those pleasures of sin any longer because of the convicting power of the Holy Spirit in their lives, but they have never begun to comprehend the great riches they have in Christ.

That's what we're going to be talking about these next few days in Christ. In Christ. Matter of fact, the phrase “in Christ” is used, some 15 times in the book of Ephesians. We are “in Christ”. Oh, if we could only begin to understand that. Peter put it this way in 1 Peter 1:3-5: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

I trust today you will begin to recognize and know the riches of His glory of the inheritance that you have in Christ.

God bless you, and may you have a wonderful, wonderful day!