10/9/2021 - 9 Ways Christians are Powerful and Rich

TNG Radio, where today's culture and timeless truths come together. It's reasoned relevant content apologetics, worldview, and answers to the questions that you need to know. From Alex McFarland Ministries, this is Truth for a New Generation Radio. And now the man who preached in 50 states in 50 days, speaker, writer, and advocate for Christian apologetics, Dr. Alex McFarland. Many centuries ago, Aesop, who wrote the fables, said, wealth unused may as well not exist. Wealth unused may as well not exist.

Hi, Alex McFarland here. Welcome to Truth for a New Generation. From Ephesians chapter 1 today, I want to talk about nine types of wealth and power and riches that every born-again Christian has at their disposal. You know, today a lot of people are discouraged because our nation seems to be just down for the count. I mean, we're living in a time of critical race theory and wokeism and ever left-leaning policies of our government.

Socialism and Marxism seem to weave their tentacles ever more tightly into the American culture. And the church is declining. There was a recent story by Tucker Carlson on Fox News saying that Christianity is dying while a militant secularism seems to be rising up to replace it.

And look at our country. Our loss of God and morality and even truth has left us in a place of increasing lawlessness, instability, and into the vacuum created by the absence of Christianity are things like Islam and paganism and just on the internet are all manner of unspeakable immoralities. And yet every human being still needs God. Those of us that are born-again believers, and you dear friend, if you're a Christian, the Spirit of God lives within you. You've got the Bible, God's written revelation to the human race, your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life, and you have a divine mission.

And we're going to talk about those things. And maybe it will be some encouragement for Christians and for the church to know that our status is not that of having been defeated. Look, we who know the true and living God, we have an incredible mission and a role to play.

And our nation needs us prayerfully, vocally, influentially to stand up as the God-ordained messengers of truth that we are. You've probably heard stories about people that had wealth or power or riches and didn't know it, and there have been many stories and fables. There's a very famous story of a boy who was a king and he didn't know it. You know, in America, just shortly before the advent of the Great Depression, there was a man in Texas named Ira Yates. Ira Yates had bought a piece of land and he had some livestock, but it was the Dust Bowl and he didn't know how he was going to pay his bills. But on a hunch, he asked an oil company to drill, and in 1926, they drilled four holes and they finally hit oil. And at that time, the oil companies did not believe there was any oil west of the Pecos River.

But Mr. Yates, he was poor, it was his last desperate attempt to figure out how to try to make some money. He agreed to a partnership and if the oil company would drill, he would split the profits with them. And they got 10,000 barrels a day of oil, which is huge.

And do you know that the land Yates had purchased in 1915 for 11 years, he walked around dead broke as a pauper. But 1,000 feet deep, they hit oil. This oil well is still going to this very day. And at present, they believe this oil well has pumped out over one and a half billion, billion barrels of oil, one of the most lucrative oil wells in history. But for 11 years, this man with one of the greatest oil wells ever untold riches, but for more than a decade, he was broke and thought that he was a pauper.

He was standing on top of riches and didn't even know it. That's like a lot of Christians today. Let me read this scripture from Ephesians chapter 1. You know the apostle Paul wrote to the Christians that comprised the church at Ephesus. And in Ephesians, Paul repeatedly reminds them that all believers in Christ live under the risen Savior who is the head of the church. We have riches in redemption.

Now maybe not monetary riches always, but very often that is a part of it. But Paul writes in verse 15 of Ephesians 1, Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love of all the saints, ceased not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. Okay, verse 17, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you. Now here are the things from Ephesians 1.17-23, the things that God is to give us. The spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. That the eyes of your understanding, being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints is. And what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward, who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places.

Now Jesus, our risen Savior, who is above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world but also in the world that is to come, and hath put all things under His feet, and hath given to Him the head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that fills all in all. Now I want to go through the nine areas of riches and power that you and I have, though you may not realize it. And writers throughout history have talked about how people search. The philosophers have pondered.

The poets have been very lyrical. People search. They want love. They want to feel like they belong.

They matter. People want to know what's what. Why am I here?

Just what is life all about? Well, that vast seemingly insatiable hunger that pulsates from the human heart, Jesus can fill it. And indeed, only Jesus can fill it.

Now you are rich, and you may not know it. And when we come back after this brief break, we're going to tell you the nine ways in which you as a Christian actually are powerful and rich. Stay tuned.

We're back after this. Have you ever wanted to raise your hand during a sermon? Well, here's your chance. Hi, Alex McFarland here from the nationally syndicated radio program Exploring the Word. For more than 10 years, my co-host Bert Harper and I have taught scripture and answered hundreds of Bible questions. We've compiled a brand new book of the top 100 Bible questions from listeners of all ages, from questions about supposed Bible contradictions to apologetics facts that prove the truths of scripture. This new book features practical content that will make the Bible come alive for you.

Can we really be sure that God exists? Are there contradictions in the Bible? I need a book that will help me understand the Bible better. There's so much good content in this book. One hundred Bible questions and answers published by Broad Street Publishers and available at your local bookstores and also through resources.afa.net. Where in the Word Are You?

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Alex McFarland here. We're talking about from Ephesians 1, Paul's prayer for the Christians at Ephesus, but it's applicable to us today. It's great encouragement in a world that just so desperately needs revival.

If you lament and feel like our best days are behind us, don't you fret. If we turn to Christ, revival can come and we need it. Ephesians 1 talks about Paul commended the Christians in Ephesus for their faith in the Lord and their love to the saints. Now this is very important because really embedded in this transaction when you give your life to Christ. Not only are your sins washed away, but so much becomes your identity as a born again child of God. Paul prays in verse 17 of Ephesians 1 that God would give you some things.

Now what? I'm going to unpack these because all of these are different words and these are part and parcel of the identity of every believer. A spirit of wisdom, revelation, knowledge, understanding, enlightenment, hope, a calling, riches of glory, we'll talk about that, and an inheritance.

If you have come to Christ and you've said, Lord save me, I want to be your follower, you may not realize it but all of these things are yours. Let's talk about these things and I'm going to tell you the Greek word because every one of these words which denotes part of your identity, this is who you are as a Christian. For one thing you have a spirit of wisdom and the word is Sophia.

I'm sure you've heard this word, it's used in Greek and Latin. Philosophy, philo-sophia, philosophy really means love of wisdom or knowledge, s-o-p-h-i-a, God gives you a spirit of wisdom. Now the Bible says in Christ are all the riches of wisdom and glory but God imparts some of this to you and the word Sophia really means insight or literally intelligence.

I've shared this many times but William Lyon Phelps, one of the early presidents of Yale University said as much as people need a college education, even more they need a Bible education. I've said this many times, I know lots of people that are smart but more and more it seems like it's rare to meet people with wisdom. Now what is wisdom? To see life from God's perspective and Ephesians 1 says look, you can be even more than smart, you can be wise. And God gives you that Sophia, not the world's wisdom because our world is dying right now because of educated fools.

But God will give you the spirit of insight, true intelligence which is to see reality from God's perspective. And Ephesians 1 says revelation. Now this word, you're going to know this word apokalupsis from the word apocalypse. Now when you think of the word apocalypse you may think of the book of revelation and a lot of people when they hear the word apocalypse they think of either the tribulation period or the battle of Armageddon, like it was apocalyptic, just chaos.

But really the word apocalypse means uncovering or revealing. And the book of Revelation, the final book of the Bible is called the revelation, sometimes Bibles will call it the revelation of Saint John or the revelation of Jesus Christ because what it's talking about is at the end of time Christ will return and every eye will see him and it will be the revealing not only of Christ, it will be the revealing of the fact that he is in control and also at the end of time will be the revealing of who followed Jesus and who stood against him. But here's the thing, if you have the spirit of God in you and you're a born again believer you have revelation knowledge. So if you're a believer you know who God is, you know what truth is, you know what error is, you know what falsehood is. That's why when people say things like, well there's nothing wrong with gay marriage, I know that they don't know Christ because if they knew Christ they would know his word and his word says what it says about moral truth.

God's word says a lot about true and false regarding morality, gender, human sexuality and clearly when we see people that claim to be Christians but flagrantly deny the word of God they don't have the spirit of revelation because the spirit of revelation will always lead you to the word of God not away from it. Ephesians also says that we have knowledge. Now what is knowledge?

Ephesians 1.17, well the word is epinosi, g-n-o-s-i-s, gnosis refers to knowledge and this word is very interesting, there's a prefix attached to it that means upon, upon knowledge. See if you've got Jesus you're building your life upon knowledge and the wording there really means discernment or perception. Wouldn't it be great to truly have discernment or perception? You might have heard the word imperceptible, something that's very hard to read, something very hard to grasp.

There was this imperceptible sound or an imperceptible detail. Sometimes people are said to be not very perceptive. If you're a born again believer I urge you to cultivate your ability to hear and acknowledge the Holy Spirit of God. God loves you. 1 John 2.27 says the spirit that abides in you remains and will teach you all things. And so the Holy Spirit of God is always wanting to guide you and to steer you and you have this epinosi, knowledge. You can build your life upon discernment, perception, the word translated in English is knowledge. Live knowledgeably folks.

We often times make very uninformed decisions but Almighty God who loves you, wants you to live as a knowledgeable person and as a Christian, born again, made alive and dwelt by the spirit, you can yes indeed live knowledgeably. Now stay tuned we're going to come back and we're going to give you six more areas of riches that you have, you possess these things as a born again believer. Stay tuned, we're back after this. Dr. Alex McFarland, Dr. Frank Turek, Sandy Rios and E.W. Jackson talking about raising children to come to Christ and stay with Christ in the midst of the woke movement, critical race theory and Marxism in America. October 15th through 17th in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, conference and concert by the Birdsong.

TNG 2021, October 15th through 17th. Register at AlexMcFarland.com. Are you tired of liberal agendas ruining our country, but you don't know what to do about it. That's why Truth and Liberty Coalition was founded. We want to equip you to take back our country and impact the world. Here's how we do it. We educate through broadcasts, conferences and our website with resources that inform, equip and motivate. We unify by collaborating with like-minded organizations like the Family Research Council, the Family Policy Alliance and My Faith Votes. We mobilize by providing practical tools you can use to impact your local community.

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Welcome back to Truth for a New Generation, Alex McFarland. We're going to resume our look at nine areas of riches that you have as a believer, but I want to mention that Truth for a New Generation, our conference, is only days away. At the time of this recording, you still have time to join us in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, October 15 through 17. Great speakers like Sandy Rios and Frank Turek, Bishop E.W.

Jackson, and more. You know, we are committed. We are absolutely committed to defend the biblical worldview, and we thank you for your prayers and financial support.

You can learn complete information at my website, which is alexmcfarland.com, alexmcfarland.com. We have got so many exciting things planned. You know, there's our TV show that airs on the NRB network, National Religious Broadcasters Network, and no matter where you live in the Western hemisphere, you can see us on television several times a week, and we're on a number of other Christian networks, but if you just look around on your cable system or satellite dish, whatever you have for television, you can find us, and also we're on all of the platforms of social media, on Facebook, REV, R-E-V, REV Alex McFarland, and on Twitter. Also, I want to remind you of our camp. Every summer we do a camp, and young people come, they love it. Our camp next year in 2022, it will be July 17 through 22, July 17 through 22 in eastern North Carolina. I'm so excited we're at a very, very wonderful camp called The Refuge.

We've rented it, and we're going to have horseback riding, and archery, and fishing, and paddle boarding, and swimming. An Olympic-sized brand new swimming pool is at this camp, and zip lines, rope courses, but the best part of all, we're going to have worship music. We're going to study the Word of God. I'll be there. Some very special guest speakers, in fact one internationally known world-renowned Christian leader is going to join us.

I'll be telling that name pretty soon. We're going to teach middle schoolers and high schoolers how to defend the faith, and I'm just going to say this. Sure, we're going to talk about the gospel, and understanding how to defend Christianity, but we're going to be talking about America.

Folks, we have got to save this nation. Now space is very limited, the truth for a new generation, camp for God and country. The theme is unashamed.

We are unashamed of our biblical world view, and we're not ashamed of America either. Well, Ephesians 1 says that God has given us a spirit of wisdom, revelation, knowledge, but the fourth riches that you have, you may not know this, is understanding. You have understanding. Now the word in the Greek is kardia. K-a-r-d-i-a. What is that? The heart from cardiac.

You know, card care unit, the heart unit. What does it mean? Well it means your inner self, your understanding and your will. God in your will, your personality, your ability to make choices. God gives you understanding.

Question is are we going to really follow it? And so the spirit of the Lord gives us not only revelation and knowledge, but understanding in our heart. We often say, you know, I knew in my heart that was wrong or something. But another word is enlightenment. And the word, a very interesting word there, and the root is photon.

Now the word pifotis menus in the Greek, what does that mean? It means illumination. God illuminates your understanding. Just like light in a dark room, God gives you illumination, enlightenment in your soul and in your mind. Look, if you know Jesus, you can see right through the lies of the world.

You can see why immorality and fatherlessness and the exploding illegitimacy rate is destroying our population. Because look, we know right from wrong. We know truth from error. We know good from bad. Because the spirit of the Lord has enlightened us. And the Bible calls the Holy Spirit the spirit of truth. But also Ephesians 1 says we have hope. And the word means expectation.

It means trust, confidence. Look, I'm concerned for this world. It does make me sad to see our nation unraveling. But I have hope because I know God answers prayer. And we have confidence in Christ. And even if the world should implode around us, we know that we're secure in Christ and our true home is in heaven. The Bible says we have a calling.

And it's very interesting. It really means an invitation and a summons. God is calling you right now to be confident in him.

God is calling you to be his messenger. We have a hope and a calling. It also says we have riches in glory.

Now what does this mean? It's interesting, the word there, it's plutas and doxa. Plutas upon doxa. Riches, wealth, abundance, and doxa.

We get the word doxology. It means glory. It means the manifestation of God's splendor and renown. And plutocracy means rule by the wealthy. You may not realize it, but we who are Christians, we are a plutocracy. We are wealthy leaders. Now, maybe not monetarily in the world sense, but we have the manifestation of God's splendor and glory indeed.

Christians are the only ones in this world who are wealthy. And then finally it says we have an inheritance. A possession, present and future.

A heritage. And Ephesians 1-11 says this too. We have this inheritance. Now what's interesting is the implication is that there's an executor of an inheritance and the executor of an estate assigns the inheritance.

The executor gets to pick who the heirs will be. And God has picked you. If you've heard that call, whosoever will may come, and you've said yes to Jesus, then God has deemed you an inheritor. And our status is one of victory, power, overcoming, and preservation, because we know the Lord. Rejoice in that today. Thanks for listening to Truth For A New Generation. Let us stand up for truth, but every day let us stand in truth, because we are Christ's blood-bought, born-again, Spirit-sealed children.

And that status is worth rejoicing over, isn't it? God bless you. PNG radio is made possible by the friends of Alex McFarland Ministries, P.O. Box 10231, Greensboro, North Carolina 27404. That's P.O. Box 10231, Greensboro, North Carolina 27404. Call us at 877-Yes-God-1.

That's 877-Yes-God and the number 1. Or give online at AlexMcFarland.com. While you're there, listen to program archives, read Alex's blog, invite Alex to speak at your event, or contact Alex with a question or comment. AlexMcFarland.com. Thanks for listening today, and join us again next time as we bring you more truth for a new generation on TNG Radio.