Calling that which is not as if it is

13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. 15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. 16 You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

John 1:12 NLT

12 But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.

1 Peter 2:9 NLT

9 But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.

State: God has a very high view of us - and a very high calling that has very little to do with our natural

talents

Coming into our fullness

State: We cannot come into the fullness of how we are made without Christ/Holy Spirit

We may make a living from our natural gifting , even be very successful

Doctor / Lawyer / Artist / Cleaner / Teacher

State: It takes the Holy Spirit to perfect the things in us that make us a truly successful /happy person

Love , Joy, Peace, Kindness, Self Control, Gentleness, Faithfulness, Generosity

It takes the Holy Spirit to give us the power to overcome sin

Hate, anger, Jealousy, Murder, Sexual immorality, Divisions, Lust

State: Without the Holy Spirit doing these things - Our natural gifts can only bring partial success/happiness

God calls us not as we are, but as we will be

Romans 4:17 NIV

17 As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.

State: We see our faults/failures/weaknesses

God sees something we don’t see

Examples: Peter

Matthew 16:18 NLT

18 Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.

State: Peter - the one who:

The one through whom satan tried to weaken Jesus’s resolve to go to Jerusalem and face his death

Peter, the first one to act in violence in Gethsemane

Peter, the one who denied Jesus in fear and panic

Gideon

Judges 6:14–15 NLT

14 Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!” 15 “But Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!”

State: God was not asking Gideon to be anything he was not

God used Gideon in all of his weakness and fear and flaws

Jeremiah

Jeremiah 1:4–7 NLT

4 The Lord gave me this message: 5 “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.” 6 “O Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I can’t speak for you! I’m too young!” 7 The Lord replied, “Don’t say, ‘I’m too young,’ for you must go wherever I send you and say whatever I tell you.

State: Jeremiah was probably right in the natural- he was too young for such a task

But God chose someone who was in a time of their life that did not fit with the task

Moses

Exodus 4:10–11 NLT

10 But Moses pleaded with the Lord, “O Lord, I’m not very good with words. I never have been, and I’m not now, even though you have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled.” 11 Then the Lord asked Moses, “Who makes a person’s mouth? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, see or do not see? Is it not I, the Lord?

Summary

Ephesians 2:10 NLT

10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

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