They will be My People

A new teacher was trying to make use of her psychology courses. She started her class by saying, “Everyone who thinks they’re stupid, stand up!” After a few seconds, Little Larry stood up. The teacher said, ‘Do you think you’re stupid, Larry?’ ‘No, ma’am, but I hate to see you standing there all by yourself!’

Introduction / Recap of part one:

A couple of Wednesday’s ago I preached a message about God’s desire to have a relationship with His creation…Us! We looked at a very important verse in the old testament found in Ezekiel.

Ezekiel 36:26–28 NLT

26 And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations. 28 “And you will live in Israel, the land I gave your ancestors long ago. You will be my people, and I will be your God.

I sure do love this scripture because of the love that God has always had for His people. We are grafted into this family. God see us with this same great love. How incredible is that thought?

My points from the first part of this message:

All Have Sinned

Our hearts by nature are imperfect. The bible has a lot to say about this original sin nature of our heart. All the way back in Genesis we read in chapter 6 verse 5 that the thoughts of mans heart was evil continually. Proverbs 12:8 tells us that the heart is perverted. Proverbs 16:5 says it’s proud. Isaiah 44:20 reminds us that we are deceived. Oh and don’t forget Jeremiah reminds us in 17:9 that our hearts are deceitful.

We know why this is true.

We can blame Adam and Eve for everything, right? Well, not so fast.

Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—

We are all guilty of sin.

Grace that Brings Transformation

Grace is the undeserved favor from a Holy and Perfect God.

That grace is what has brought salvation to us all. We are all sinners saved by Grace. This grace is what starts to transform us from the inside out. We may have to live with the consequences of sin in our lives, but we are justified by the price Christ paid on the cross and the fact that He has beaten death.

My final point from part one was:

We are God’s Chosen People

This is were I brought up those incredible words spoken by Ezekiel 36:26-58. That the nature of God is to give His chosen people a new heart and new spirit.

Once you’ve accepted Christ, are important! Don’t count yourself out because of something you feel could hold you back.

Not your past, what others think, your education, your feelings, or anything else can stop you if you understand that through Christ you have been given a NEW heart.

We are all the same. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We all need a Saviour. We all need to be transformed by Grace.

The last part of the Ezekiel 36:28 says something so cool. “You shall be my people, and I will be your God”

Ezekiel 36:28 “You shall be my people, and I will be your God”

We get to BE God’s people! How incredible is that thought? For me it’s so incredible is that this is where I want to start the second part of this message.

What does it mean that we now are walking this earth as the chosen people of God?

Well, the first thing I think it means is that we...

We are Covenant People

As God’s chosen people there is more to our relationship with God than restoration from our fallen condition. He desires a relationship. A relationship that goes much deeper than acquaintances. You see, God makes covenants with His people.

A covenant is an agreement between God and His people. It lays out commitments and requirements. It will also include blessing and curses for obedience or failure.

This is incredible that God would promise us anything! It’s because He loves us. He loves you!

Circumstances will come and go. Emotions will come and go. But God will remain constant in His love for us.

So, we have a promise from God. He has always made promises to those He loves.

Right before the ten commandments were given to Moses we can read some incredible words:

Exodus 19:3–6 NLT

3 Then Moses climbed the mountain to appear before God. The Lord called to him from the mountain and said, “Give these instructions to the family of Jacob; announce it to the descendants of Israel: 4 ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians. You know how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own special treasure from among all the peoples on earth; for all the earth belongs to me. 6 And you will be my kingdom of priests, my holy nation.’ This is the message you must give to the people of Israel.”

God chose the Israelites to be his special people. He gave them the Ten Commandments to reveal his PERFECT character. He demanded that, as his people, the Israelites live in a way that reflected his holiness.

Leviticus 11:44 NLT

44 For I am the Lord your God. You must consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. So do not defile yourselves with any of these small animals that scurry along the ground.

The Israelites couldn’t keep these commandments—and neither can we. No matter how much we may try, we will never be perfect people. Until the day that Christ returns on the clouds or we lay our head down for the last time we will struggle with imperfection.

We have good news though, even when we fail, God does not, He is faithful.

2 Thessalonians 3:3 ESV

3 But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one.

Dictionary.com defines being faithful as one who is dependable, trustworthy and reliable.

To be faithful means being true to our word at all costs. To be faithful means being committed to someone or something, that nothing will stop the fulfillment of that commitment.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians explaining to them that God would fulfill His promise to them, based simply on the truth that God is a faithful God.

1 Corinthians 1:7-9, “…as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day or our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful…”

So, here we see that “faithful” is not something God does – it’s something that God is.

See the difference? Faithfulness is a part of God’s intrinsic nature and being. He does faithful acts, because He is faithful.

David said, “Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.” (Psalm 36:5)

God’s faithfulness is immeasurable; it is so high that it is all the way to the eternal regions, above all visible space! No human being can be this faithful. But God is!

Why is He faithful to His people? Because He wants a relationship with us. God has from the beginning of time wanted to know us intimately. He wants to bless us.

I love the imagery of verse 4 that says “I have carried you on eagles wings and brought you to myself”

Even though people are not perfect as God is perfect He still rescues us. He still wants to lift us above our enemy. Above the problems of this life. It’s His desire to be our salvation. I really don’t think God get’s pleasure in our pain and suffering. He is on our side!

I think of covenants He made throughout the entire old testament. These covenants were primarily one sided. God does the major lifting in most of the covenants He made with His people. Think of Abram.

Genesis 12:2–3 ESV

2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

This man didn’t deserve this type of blessing from God! No way, but God in His great desire for relationship with His creation reaches down to us and lifts us up to a place of blessing.

The covenant with Abraham was more than just for that one man, God was setting into motion a promise to bring ALL mankind to blessing through Jesus the Lord.

Galatians 3:6–9 ESV

6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”? 7 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” 9 So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

You may say, well “hey, I am not blessed right now, how is God helping me?”

I don’t know if you noticed, but we are living in an imperfect world. WE are imperfect.

So many times we cause destruction in our own lives due to the sin WE commit, and there are certainly consequences to sin. God made this covenant with Abram, but that man certainly didn’t live a perfect life. He experienced the consequences of sin for sure. That didn’t mean God stopped loving him and desiring a relationship with him.

I think about the the covenant God made with Noah... the sinfulness of man caused the wrath of God to eliminate all humanity except for Noah and his family.

God certainly will not fiddle with our sinfulness. He doesn’t like disobedience.

BUT our sin and the consequences of that sin does not change the fact that God wants us to be blessed. That He wants good for His children. God is not hoping that you fail. He gets no pleasure in our pain and suffering in this life. His desire is to have a relationship with US!

Look at what He said to the Israelites:“I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people” (Leviticus 26:12).

The Israelites learned that God is their powerful provider.

They fled Egypt after the tenth plague.

God led them by pillar of fire at night and a pillar of cloud by day.

He parted the Red Sea for the Israelites but drowned the pursuing Egyptian soldiers.

The Lord made undrinkable water drinkable and provided water out of a rock.

He provided bread from heaven every single day.

Again and again God showed his faithfulness. Again and again he provided the impossible.

He said they would make their home in an incredible land. A land flowing with milk and honey.

Yet the Israelites doubted God’s power and provision when they saw the people who were living in the promised land.

They panicked, thinking they couldn’t defeat these mighty people—and they didn’t believe God would equip them to defeat these enemies and take possession of the land he had promised to them. Because of their unbelief they wandered for the next forty years in the desert.

The Israelites spent those forty years learning they couldn’t do life without God.

They tried making idols, fighting their own enemies, and solving their own problems only to fall flat on their faces.

They learned to repent of their sin—to be truly sad and turn away from it.

They learned that obedience leads to blessing and that the presence of God is everything.

They learned to pray, worship, care for one another, to be warriors, and to hear the voice of God.

When I reflect on these Israelites I can’t help but to put us in their shoes. Because aren’t we just like them? Don’t we know that God is our provider? I mean, He did provide us with a Saviour, right? He has been faithful to us through His marvelous grace.

Yet, when we are walking down the paths of our lives, we become fearful when we see the giants in the land that we are promised. We might be willing to take on the world when life is at it’s best, but as soon as the trials of life come our way we back down. And we end up finding ourselves like the children of Israel, and we feel like you are wandering in the wilderness.

Well, I have encouraging news for you today! Remember that God is always powerful and in control. He will use your journey—like the Israelites’ journey thousands of years ago—to draw you closer to himself and to show you his faithfulness. You’ve not gone too far that God can’t make a path in the wilderness and a stream in the desert.

Think on this scripture today:

Deuteronomy 2:7 NLT

7 For the Lord your God has blessed you in everything you have done. He has watched your every step through this great wilderness. During these forty years, the Lord your God has been with you, and you have lacked nothing.” ’

You see, this statement is made AFTER those children of Israel made the mistake of not walking into the promise land as God told them to do…How is that God had such patience with them?

Well, go back to our very first scripture I read today.

Exodus 19:5 NLT

5 Now if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own special treasure from among all the peoples on earth; for all the earth belongs to me.

You will be my own special treasure.

When we accept Christ we have entered into the greatest covenant that has ever been made. We are grafted in as God’s special people. His treasure!

Final Thought: We are all sinners who receive grace that transforms us to be God's chosen people who are partakers of the promises of God.

Remember that the when you are walking through trials or even persecution. Just like God delivered these treasured people He will deliver you.