Rabbi Schneider - Do You Know? You are a Somebody!
One of my favorite books in the Bible, the book of Ephesians, maybe you have your favorite books in the Bible. I love Ephesians, the Gospel of John, The Song of Songs. Ephesians is definitely one of my favorites. Listen to the word of God in Ephesians chapter two verses four through six, "but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you've been saved and raised up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus".
I wanna focus on this concept of being raised up with Christ and being seated with him in the heavenly places. First of all, I wanna establish that this is all by God's doing. This is the point that Paul is making. This is a gift of mercy. Even when we were dead in our transgressions and sins, God reached down, took us by the hand through the blood of Jesus, lifted us up and saved us. We've been brought in to supernatural unity with God, through the blood of Yeshua through the blood of Jesus, the holy spirit and the word. And the position that you and I are now in, in the realm of the spirit is that we've been raised and are seated with Christ in heavenly places.
Now I know for myself as a brand new believer, 40 years ago, I was going through a very difficult time in my life. I mean, I was broken I'm 5' 5.5" and I realized when I graduated high school that I wasn't gonna shoot up. I always thought I was gonna be tall cause my cousins were like six foot two and they shot up later in life. So I always saw myself as a tall person, but finally at 18 years old, I had to realize I wasn't gonna be tall. That I was stuck at 5' 5.5" and because I didn't know the Lord and I was in the flesh, this was a death blow to me. And I went from feeling like I was on top of the world till I was 18 years old. Now all the sudden feeling broken in life. My spirit was crushed. My back was broken until Jesus revealed himself to me back in 1978 and appeared to me in my bedroom, in the middle of the night.
And then I started reading God's word and I read this verse that God has raised me up and seated me in the heavens with Christ Jesus, how much taller can you get than that? Why am I sharing this with you? Because some of us today are defeated by a spirit of inferiority and we've been broken by life. And maybe we think we're not worth much, perhaps because of our physical appearance, perhaps because of our income, maybe we have some type of physical impairment. It could be any number of things. Maybe your parents told you, you weren't worth much. And you grew up under that.
But I wanna speak unto you today, the excellency of who God has made you to be. God has raised you up and seated you in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That means that you are above everything, that you are a victor permanently in him. And knowing that you're a victor, knowing who you are in him, it won't lead to a spirit of egoism. It'll actually bring you to a place where you'll have compassion on other people and be able to love people.
I want you to know today, you are a somebody. It doesn't matter what your occupation is. You couldn't go about your occupation even if it's the most lowly occupation according to the worlds standards. You could put dignity into what you're doing because of who you are. Your occupation does not define you. Your physical stature does not define you. People do not define you. What defines you and I is who God says we are. And the word of God tells you that you've been raised up and are seated with Christ in heavenly places. God has made you a winner. You're a champion. Now he wants you and I to lift up our head and act like it.