Blessed with heavens best, part 3 of this series, teaches that God has already given believers every spiritual blessing, and that the key which opens those blessings is righteousness received as a gift, not earned by effort. The pastor traces the theme from God’s love in creation, through Cain and Abel, the law as a shadow and Jesus seated at the Father’s right hand, to a list of what righteousness does in a believer’s life.
Below you will find the full video, a structured summary of the sermon, every Scripture used (linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway), a timestamped outline, and practical steps for living as the righteousness of God this week.
Sermon at a Glance
This message was preached at NTC Ministries and posted on February 26, 2025. The pastor is not named in the recording. He says he started the Blessed With Heaven’s Best series earlier and that an earlier series covered the Great Exchange in Isaiah 52 through 54. He jokes that it took three sermons to finally reach the spiritual blessings themselves. It runs about 55 minutes and ends in prayer.
His goal is to change how believers see themselves. God sees His children as righteous in Christ, and those who receive that gift rule and reign in life instead of wrestling with God for what He has already given.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Speaker | Not named in the recording (the pastor who began the series) |
| Series | Blessed With Heaven’s Best, part 3 |
| Main text | Ephesians 1:3–6 and 2 Corinthians 5:21 |
| Key theme | Righteousness is a gift that releases the blessings God has already given |
| Length | About 55 minutes, closing in prayer |
Created by Love, Not Condemned
The pastor begins by reviewing what the series has shown so far: God is love. Love created mankind, and after man fell and corruption filled everything, love came into the earth to redeem it. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16). Everyone who receives Jesus is born again in love and surrounded by it.
His own pastor, Glenn Smith, used to tell him to read the Bible by putting the word love wherever he saw God or Lord, because God is love. Jesus told us to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:39), but many people do not love themselves because they have not received God’s love. We love Him because He first loved us.
So he rejects preaching that tells people they are just old dogs who must grovel before God will help them. If you see yourself differently from the way God sees you, which of you is wrong? “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). Feeling condemned does not make you condemned. All creation is waiting for the revealing of the sons of God (Romans 8:19), so do not belittle yourself.
Before God so loved that He gave, God so loved that He created. Love needs an object. The pastor says he did not know love the way he does now until he met his wife. The love was there, but when the object of his affection came into his life it rose up and found expression. That, he says, is why God created you: to show you His love.
Blessed With Heavens Best: Every Spiritual Blessing
The church reads Ephesians 1:3–6 together: “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,” choosing us in love and making us “accepted in the Beloved.”
What was love’s first act toward mankind? In Genesis 1:26, God gave man dominion over everything. Dominion is a kingdom word; it means you have a domain. Psalm 8:6 says God gave man dominion over the works of His hands, and Psalm 115:16 says the earth He has given to the children of men. That is why, he says, saying God is just in control can be a cop-out. God is in charge, but you are the one with dominion.
Notice the tense: He has blessed us. When Adam sinned, everything was handed over, and Satan became the prince of the power of the air. The earth had been without form and void (Genesis 1:2), a prison for rebels. It looked like a huge problem, yet Jesus, facing the cross, gave thanks and led His disciples in singing.
When Jesus came, He made us new creations; old things passed away and all things became new (2 Corinthians 5:17). He disarmed principalities and powers, nailing the handwriting of requirements against us to the cross (Colossians 2:14–15). When you give your life to Jesus, you give it to love, and He immediately gives everything back.
Paul told the Corinthians that all things are theirs, even Paul and Apollos (1 Corinthians 3:21–23). After the resurrection, Jesus “was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God” (Mark 16:19). The pastor recalls a pastor mentioned in an earlier message, from a Muslim nation where Christians are given a name meaning Christ. That, he says, is how God sees us: anointed ones, representing Him on the earth, not by violence but by healing, helping and loving people, because whoever has seen Jesus has seen the Father (John 14:9).
Two Kinds of Righteousness: Cain and Abel
Adam, the pastor says, lived the rest of his life under condemnation after the fall. Yet Adam and Eve still taught their sons to worship, which is why Cain and Abel brought offerings (Genesis 4:3–5). Cain brought produce from the strength of his own arm, saying in effect, look what I did for you, God. Abel brought a lamb, saying, thank You for what You have done for me.
That is the difference between the two kinds of righteousness, and it still exists. Under corruption, everything is, God, look what I have done; I will please You. It is like wrestling with God: if I get enough people praying with me, maybe I will get my breakthrough. But once you are born again, He has already blessed you with every spiritual blessing.
Peter says that through the knowledge of God and of Jesus, He has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). Satan always wants you looking back at your failures or ahead to someday, but faith is now (Hebrews 11:1). God is not against you; He is not here to scold you but to hold you.
Then he reads the key verse. “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). The law was a mirror that only showed our blemishes, and Jesus took it away so that the Father would see you as His loved child. As He is, so are we in this world.
Righteousness is a gift. Those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life (Romans 5:17). He has the church say together, I have dominion.
The Kingdom Administered From Heaven
To set up his next series, the pastor notes that the New Testament speaks of the kingdom of God many times and of the kingdom of heaven many times. Some scholars say there is no difference, but he believes there is. The kingdom of God always was and always will be. The kingdom of heaven is a particular administration of it, the way one constitution can be administered very differently by different administrations and their staff.
The table below follows the administrations he lists.
| Administration | How it worked, as taught |
|---|---|
| Innocence | Adam walked with God in the cool of the day and had nothing to ask for, because he was given everything |
| Conscience | After the fall, life was governed by what could be touched, tasted, seen, felt and heard |
| Human government | People ruled themselves, and it proved terrible |
| Law | Blessing depended on duty and works, which no one could fulfill |
| Grace | Jesus administers the kingdom from the Father’s right hand in heaven |
Under conscience, he says, people were ruled by the five senses, the gates of Psalm 24:7. Now that Jesus has risen and is seated in heaven, the kingdom is administered from heaven. So whenever you read kingdom of heaven, he teaches, it points to this present administration of grace.
The Law Was a Shadow; Jesus Sat Down
Hebrews 10:1–4 says the law had “a shadow of the good things to come,” and could never make worshipers perfect. The pastor points to his own shadow on the platform: it can make him look bigger, but it cannot show his face, his heart or his dreams. The law told people that God wanted to bless them, but they could not do what it took. It was meant to point to Jesus, yet people began worshiping the law, straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel (Matthew 23:24).
In Hebrews 10:11–14, every priest stands daily, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, “but this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God.” No more sweating it, he says. Jesus is waiting until His enemies are made His footstool, and we are the ones with dominion who do it, but in love, overcoming evil with good (Romans 12:21).
That is why we must encourage one another daily (Hebrews 3:13). Everyone has a breaking point. He offers husbands some humor and advice: when your wife has had a bad day, do not quiz her about what she should have done; tell her you know things will turn around.
“For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” You are not finished, but to God you are perfect, and you are growing. Sin is not good for you, but it is all right that you are still growing, because your righteousness rests on His perfection. He who began a good work in you will complete it (Philippians 1:6).
Ephesians 2:1–7 describes us as once dead in trespasses, following the prince of the power of the air. “But God, who is rich in mercy,” made us alive with Christ and “made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Seated means rest. There remains a rest for God’s people, and our labor is to enter it (Hebrews 4:9–11). He adds that the whole book of Revelation opens as “the Revelation of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 1:1); the Bible is all about Jesus.
God seated us there so that He might show the exceeding riches of His grace and kindness toward us. Paul counted all things loss to gain Christ and be found in Him, “not having my own righteousness, which is from the law,” but the righteousness that is from God by faith (Philippians 3:8–9). In the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith (Romans 1:16–17), and as we draw close by faith, he says, blessings come with less of our own striving.
What Righteousness Does for You
Love has been perfected among us so that we may have boldness, “because as He is, so are we in this world,” and perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:17–19). It is through righteousness, the pastor says, that we obtain the blessings already given, so that we have all sufficiency in all things for every good work (2 Corinthians 9:8). Finally, three sermons in, he lists the spiritual blessings that righteousness brings.
| What righteousness does | Scripture he gives |
|---|---|
| Relieves distress and lifts the weight of life | Psalm 4:1 |
| Gives strength, like the great mountains | Psalm 36:6 |
| Shows the path to walk | Psalm 85:13 and Psalm 23:3 |
| Defends and establishes you | Isaiah 54:14–17 |
| Delivers from trouble | Proverbs 11:8 |
| Brings peace, quietness and assurance | Isaiah 32:16–17 |
“Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have relieved me in my distress.” The pastor says he sleeps at night now in a way he could not years ago. He leads the church in declaring, I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, and explains that it is a gift to receive, not something to boast in.
In Isaiah 54, people may gather against you, “but not because of Me,” and whoever assembles against you will fall. “No weapon formed against you shall prosper,” and their righteousness is from the Lord. The pastor has seen this for years, so he prays for those who oppose him, as Stephen prayed that his persecutors would not be charged with their sin (Acts 7:60), asking God to open their eyes before trouble comes.
Isaiah 32 calls the church the fruitful field where righteousness remains, and “the work of righteousness will be peace.” This is Christianity, he says, not a denomination. The kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21), though that is no reason to stop gathering together.
He closes in prayer, thanking God that He did not throw us away as damaged goods but sent Jesus, our faithful High Priest, so that we can come boldly to the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:15–16), and that it is the Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom (Luke 12:32).
Living as the Righteousness of God
Here are the practical steps drawn from this message:
- Read love into the text. As his old pastor taught, try reading a passage with the word love in place of God, and let it change how you see Him.
- Refuse condemnation. When you feel condemned, answer with Romans 8:1 instead of agreeing with the feeling.
- Thank before you ask. Bring Abel’s offering: thank God for what He has done rather than listing what you have done for Him.
- Declare who you are. Say out loud each day, I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
- Encourage someone daily. Look for a person near their breaking point and tell them it will turn around.
- Pray for those who oppose you. Ask God to open their eyes before trouble comes to them.
Timestamped Outline
- 0:00 Series review: God is love
- 1:27 Read love wherever you see God
- 2:44 Romans 8:1: no condemnation
- 5:17 Love needs an object
- 6:24 Ephesians 1:3–6 and dominion
- 8:51 He has blessed us, past tense
- 11:23 New creations given everything back
- 12:41 Cain, Abel and two kinds of righteousness
- 15:03 Faith is now
- 16:25 2 Corinthians 5:21
- 18:44 Jesus seated at the right hand
- 22:33 Kingdom of God and kingdom of heaven
- 25:01 Innocence, conscience, government, law, grace
- 27:18 Hebrews 10: the law was a shadow
- 29:32 One sacrifice, then He sat down
- 34:00 Encourage one another daily
- 36:13 Perfected forever, still growing
- 37:25 Ephesians 2: seated in heavenly places
- 43:04 Philippians 3 and Romans 1
- 45:13 1 John 4: as He is, so are we
- 46:29 What righteousness does
- 48:59 Righteousness defends: Isaiah 54
- 52:40 Righteousness brings peace
- 53:57 Closing prayer
Blessed With Heavens Best Series
This message is part of a teaching series at NTC Ministries. Continue with the next message:
- You are here: Blessed With Heaven’s Best, Part 3 — The Gift of Righteousness
- Next: Blessed With Heaven’s Best #4: Every Spiritual Blessing, No Condemnation
Frequently Asked Questions
If God has already blessed me, why do I still have problems?
The pastor teaches that the blessings are already given, but they come into our lives through righteousness received by faith. Satan keeps people looking back at past failures or ahead to someday, while faith receives now. He also admits that people will come against believers; Isaiah 54 says they will gather, but not because of God, and they will not prevail.
Does being righteous mean I no longer sin?
No. He says sin is not good for anyone, but every believer is growing at different levels in different areas. Hebrews 10:14 says one offering has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. Your standing rests on Christ’s perfection, not yours, and God will complete the good work He began in you.
What is the difference between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven?
In his teaching, the kingdom of God is eternal and always existed. The kingdom of heaven is the present administration of that kingdom under grace, run from heaven by Jesus seated at the Father’s right hand. He presents this as a setup for his next series.
Scripture References
All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:
- Ephesians 1:3–6 — every spiritual blessing in Christ
- 2 Corinthians 5:21 — the righteousness of God in Him
- Romans 8:1 — no condemnation
- Genesis 1:26 — dominion given to man
- Romans 5:17 — the gift of righteousness
- Hebrews 10:11–14 — one sacrifice, then He sat down
- Ephesians 2:1–7 — seated in the heavenly places
- Isaiah 54:14–17 — established in righteousness
How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.
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