Thomas J Parlette
“Chosen for an Inheritance”
Ephesians 1: 3-14
7/11/21
What would you do if tomorrow you found out that you had inherited an unexpected fortune? What problems would it solve for you? What problems would it create? How would a surprise inheritance affect your life?
There was once a wealthy bachelor from Portugal named Luis Carlos de Noronha Cabral da Camara. I know, quite a name, isn’t it? I had to practice it a few times – and I’m sure I still got something wrong in there. Luis had inherited a large amount of money which he spent on motorcycles, shooting, and drinking. The rest he wasted, as the old joke goes.
Being a bachelor, he didn’t have anyone to leave his fortune to, so he picked the names of 70 random strangers from a Portuguese phonebook and left them each a share in his estate. After his premature death at the age of 42, many of his heirs thought they were being scammed when they received their unexpected inheritance.(1)
Even more amazing is the story of a journalism in Moldova named Sergey Sudev. Sergey received a surprise inheritance totaling around $1 billion dollars from an uncle he hadn’t see in ten years. Yes, that’s billion with a “B!” The inheritance made him one of the wealthiest citizens in one of the poorest countries in Europe.(2)
I once read about a company that specializes in locating missing heirs so they can claim their inheritance. Heir Hunters International employs teams of researchers to finds people who have an inheritance waiting for them. The company claims that they have “handled cases totaling well over $100 million.” That’s a huge amount of money, but it’s still a small percentage of the $47.1 billion dollars’ worth of unclaimed inheritances worldwide, according to the New York Times.(3)
It’s hard to imagine that there could be that much wealth waiting around to be claimed by its rightful heirs. What a difference it would make in their lives if they knew that they had such riches waiting for them.
That’s the message Paul is trying to share with us today. God has abundant gifts waiting for the children of God. Paul tells us that we are greatly blessed. He writes, “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.” Note those words- “every spiritual blessing.” God doesn’t hold back any spiritual blessing from us. The power, the authority, the hope, the joy, the peace, the love of God are all available to God’s children. So why do so many Christians struggle with anxiety, envy, greed, fear and hopelessness? Perhaps we just don’t understand the truth and value of the spiritual blessings we’ve been given.
Rev. Ian Brown tells a story of an old miser who buried all his gold in a hole in the ground. Once a week, the miser dug up the gold and stared at it. He savored it. He dreamed of what he could do with it. And then he put the gold back into the hole and covered it up again.
One day a thief dug up his gold and stole it. When the miser came to stare at his gold, all he saw was an empty hole. He began to howl with grief and his neighbors came to see what the matter was.
One of the neighbors asked, “Did you ever use any of the gold?”
No, never. I only dug it up to look at it.”
“Well then,” said the neighbor, “for all the good it did you, you may as well come every week and stare at this empty hole.”(4)
Living in ignorance of our spiritual blessings is as useful as burying a bag of gold in the ground and never using it. We need to recognize our blessings, thank God for them, and claim these blessings as the foundation of our lives. That is the key to living without anxiety, fear, poor self0image, envy, greed and hopelessness.
First of all, we are blessed that we have been chosen. Paul writes to the Ephesians, reminding them God has blessed them “with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world”. We have been chosen for an inheritance of spiritual blessing.
The words “in Christ” appears ten times in the book of Ephesians. Paul wants us to realize that Jesus did the work for us. We don’t have to earn it. We don’t have to be good enough to deserve it. Out of his love for us, Jesus sacrificed his own life to guarantee us all the spiritual blessings that flow from his own relationship with God. So when we read that “in Christ” we become children of God, it means that our identity and inheritance are sealed by the sacrificial, unconditional love of Jesus. As Paul put it, God “destined us for adoption as God’s children through Jesus Christ.”
So what does it mean that we are chosen in Christ? If you are chosen, that means you are valued. You are loved. It means that God has a purpose for you. You don’t choose a painting unless you plan to display it and enjoy it. You don’t choose a pet unless you plan to nurture and protect it. You don’t choose a spouse unless you plan to cherish and love that person. Now consider that God chose you and destined you for adoption as God’s own child before the creation of the world. Once we understand that truth, how can we doubt God’s love for us.
In November 1984, a young man named Patrick was doing his laundry in the dorm laundry room at San Francisco State University. It was late at night, and Patrick was spooked by a sound coming from a cardboard box in the corner of the room. He walked over and peeked inside and was shocked to see a baby. It was a new-born baby girl, abandoned in a college dorm laundry room. The baby’s body temperature was dropping, and she was turning blue. Patrick grabbed the first student he saw, a nursing student named Esther Raiger, and asked for help. Luckily, Esther had just completed a course on infant care, so she cared for the baby until paramedics arrived.
The hospital staff named the newborn Baby Jane Doe. When the story hit the news outlets, numerous people around the country offered to adopt her. Among those who contacted Child Services were Sam and Helene Sobol. Helene says that the moment she saw Baby Jane’s picture in the papers, she said to herself, “This is our baby.”
The Sobols adopted the little girl and changed her name to Jillian. Jillian Sobol. They never hid the fact that she was adopted but they didn’t tell her the circumstances of her birth until she turned 16. They were concerned that Jillian might be upset at her abandonment. But when Jillian recalls the conversation, she remembers the overwhelming feelings of being “special and loved.” It didn’t matter to her how her life started out. All that mattered was that she had been chosen and adopted. That’s what defined her life.
More than 20 years later, Jillian Sobol entered San Francisco State University where she had been abandoned – but this time as a student. She graduated in 2015 with a degree in Hospitality and Tourism Management.(5)
In God’s great realm there are no grandchildren, no stepchildren, there are illegitimate children, because each of us is a child of God “in Christ!” We are set free. We are chosen. Let that be the truth that defines you. There is great joy in a feeling of chosen-ness.
Charles Spurgeon once said that when you are approaching heaven, you will read on the outside gates, “Whosoever will, may come.” But when you turn around, you’ll see written on the inside gates, “Chosen in Him from the foundation of the world.” We are blessed because we are chosen.
We are also blessed when we realize that our sins are indeed forgiven. To encourage the Ephesians, Paul wrote, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that has been lavished on us.” In Christ, we are forgiven and given another chance.
Someone once wrote into the Reader’s Digest to tell of a problem their mother was having. A medical billing service had just bought an 800 number that was identical to her mother’s number. Her mother started getting dozens of calls every day from people wanting to discuss their bills. She got fed with these calls, as you might imagine, so she called the medical billing service and asked them to change their number. They responded that she should change her number, even though she’d had that same phone number for 20 years.
So the woman said, “Fine. From now on I’m going to tell everyone who calls that their bill is paid in full and their account has been forgiven.”
That medical billing company got a new number the very next day.(6)
Paul himself serves as a powerful example of the joy and freedom found in forgiveness. Paul wrote, “For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church. But by the grace of God I am what I am.” Even though Paul once persecuted the church, through the grace of God, he was forgiven and given another chance. With his new life, Paul set forth proclaiming the message of salvation to Jews and Gentiles alike.
True freedom and new life are possible if we live our lives in service to Jesus Christ. In him, we are set free. In him we are forgiven.
And finally, we are blessed when we realize that we are not trapped by what has happened to us in the past. Many of us get stuck because we remember and relive old, painful memories.
There’s an old story about a man who ran into a friend one day. He said, “Say, you look depressed. What are you thinking about?”
“My future,” was the quick answer.
“What makes your future look so hopeless?”
Just as quickly the response was, “My past.”
If this Bible is true, then it is God who defines us, not ourselves, not our friends, not our families. Neither are we defined by our successes or failures, or our strengths and weaknesses. God alone defines our life. And when God looks at us, God doesn’t look at our past. God looks at our possibilities. God looks at our potential. God looks at who we could be.
For some of us, this past year has been the worst year ever. So many people lost jobs, many were laid off. Many found themselves having to cope with less income and more anxiety. Some have experienced death in their families that left them hurting and grieving.
Here’s what Christ says to us – regardless of our circumstances. New beginnings are possible. In fact, this very time is a time of new beginning. You may have spent your life living in anxiety and worry and disappointment. You may have let your family and perhaps your culture or your past define you. God wants you to know that you have nothing to fear. You have been chosen for an inheritance. You have been forgiven. You are longer trapped by what has happened to you in the past. You are of all peoples, blessed with all God’s spiritual gifts.
Let this be the day that you find your identity, your purpose, and your future in Christ.
May God be praised. Amen.
1. Dynamic Preaching, Vol. XXXVII, No. 2, p52.
2. Ibid… p52.
3. Ibid… p52.
4. Ibid… p52-53.
5. Ibid… p53.
6. Ibid… p54.
