God Picked Me

Introduction

Life is about being picked. We’ve all been in a situation where we’ve been one of multiple choices. Whether you’ve applied for a job and your a finalist for that position, or you applied to a program or some sort of organization and being chosen was something that you desired. We like to be chosen, even as it pertains to a relationship, it made you feel good when the person you sought companionship with desires the same companionship. Even to the playground, as a kid when we would play a backyard football game or a showing up to the recreation center and were playing pick up basketball no one wants to be the last one picked or the one that has to call next just to get on the court. As a human being acceptance is something we desire at some point. So much so that there are people that actually fear rejection. As it pertains to being picked, or being chosen understand that God has picked you. That’s a reason to rejoice knowing that God selected us in spite of our past, in spite of our mistakes, even in spite of us declining his invitation in the past.

It’s quite interesting that the analogy of adoption is used to explain how God loves us. If you are familiar with the foster care system typically the children that end up in that system are typically the victims of some extreme trauma. It’s quite the dynamic that a loving household can change the trajectory of their life. Similarly to the fact that the love of God can change our life forever. It can put us around people that love us even when we deem ourselves unlovable and do not love ourselves. It is a blessing to know that we have redemption in Christ! This message of redemption is a message of unity as well. Typically these letters were circulated to the local churches in that area.

God is Worthy to Be Praised

God is worthy to be praised! We ought to be thankful for the fact that God has blessed us with everything we need. God is praiseworthy, Jesus is praiseworthy! God has blessed us with EVERY spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. The blessings of God supercede anything that this earth or anyone on this earth could do for us. These blessings are different they attribute to the nature of the spirit. My ability to rejoice, my ability to find peace, my ability to know that there is comfort in God despite what I’m going through is a blessing. When I can treat people with kindness when they try to treat me like trash, or in the case of Ephesus the spiritual climate had to be frustrating in some regard as it pertains to being a Christian in a community that did not hold Jesus in high regard at all.

The Spiritual Climate of Ephesus.

1.Pluralism. As many as fifty other gods and goddesses were worshipped in addition to Artemis.

2.Artemis.

a.Covenant relationship.

b.Month.

c.Olympic-style games – the Artemesia.

d.The major savings and loan institution for the region.

3.Magic and spirit powers.

a.An animistic worldview in which good and evil spirits were involved in almost every aspect of life.

b.Magic represented a a means of harnessing spiritual power through rituals, incantations, and invocations.

Not only did idolatry influence belief of residents but it controlled economics, the image of these gods were on currency. So this reminder in this text that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing was comforting. The goal of the enemy is to distract us by trying to get us to believe we can have our spiritual needs from another source besides God. It gets even worse when we begin to compare what we have and what we’ve been blessed with by what people that live according to a wordly construct have been blessed with.

We lose sight of what God is doing for us when we begin to compare what we have versus what other people have. We have to be thankful for what God is doing exclusively in our life.

Colossians 3:2 “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.”

Understanding that God is worthy to be praised because He provides everything we need. This should push us to gather the fact that God’s love is an accepting love. A love that puts us in position to sons and daughters through adoption, redeemed by the blood of the lamb and forgiven for the sins that we have commited. This alone should be reason enough to praise his holy name!

God Picked Us

Ephesians 1:4 “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,”

When you’ve been chosen you act different. It’s a different feeling when you show up someone because someone chose you to be there rather than when you just showed up to show up. It’s similar to being a guest of honor, or being invited as someone’s special guest. As a response to being thankful for God choosing us our thanksgiving should be reflected in a holy and loving attitude.

Calvin suggests, “election is the foundation and first cause of all blessings”. God’s chosen has always been protected and blessed. Israel was chosen, not because of their own merit but because of the eternal purpose of God. You’ve been chosen because of the purpose and will of God! You may make some impact, but the full purpose of God calling us may be greater than the time span we live in! Faith has the power to have transcendent impact for generations to come.

John 15:16 “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.”

This removes any ability for us to boast about our impact, no one would be here except for God allowing it to happen. Election is for salvation, but the exponential power of planting seeds in other people’s lives so that they might be saved as well! We are Christians in hopes to express what God has done through the way we live our life and how we treat others! Our lives should reflect the holiness of God. It is a continuous striving and consistent attempts and being more like Jesus and not like the world.

Philippians 2:15 “that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,”

It’s God Will That We Belong to Him

Ephesians 1:5 “having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,”

Belonging to God was predestined, it’s something planned according to His will! I’m not sure if you’re familiar with Step-Parent adoption but when a person adopts their bonus child the last name isn’t the only thing that changes. The courts actually give you an opportunity to change their name any way you desire! Not only the name of the child change but the name of the parent changes on the birth certificate.

We’ve been adopted by God, He declared through the live and death of Jesus Christ to accept us as His own! It’s not just about the fatherhood of God but by being taken in as sons and daughters we also have complete rights to the inheritance! Adopted children have their position not by right but by grace!

We praise God because of His grace!

Ephesians 1:6 “to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.”

I’m accepted in spite of my shortcomings, in spite of my sin, because of the wonderful grace of God! Understanding that we are loved. There isn’t rejection in Christ! We have to live like we’ve been accepted and guess what? God’s accepts any of those who are willing to COME!

1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching Adoption

In 1952 a probation officer in New York City tried to find an organization that would assist in the adoption of a twelve-year-old boy. Although the child had a religious background, none of the major denominations would assist in his adoption. Said the officer later, “His case had been reported to me because he had been truant. I tried for a year to find an agency that would care for this needy youngster. Neither Catholic, Protestant, nor Jewish institutions would take him because he came from a denomination they did not recognize. I could do nothing constructive for him.”

If the principles of Christian love had prevailed in the Bronx in 1952, perhaps a good home could have been found for that young, mixed-up lad. In fact, providing a better environment in which to grow up might have changed history. For, you see, the boy was Lee Harvey Oswald.6