Chosen Anyway

 As we look at our lives and all the things we deal with everyday - 'do we really believe God's love?' Sure! We sing about it - 'Jesus loves me' - we read it in the Bible - 'for God so loved the world'. But do we really let that truth shape how we view ourselves on a daily basis? That was something that was extremely important to the Apostle Paul as he wrote Ephesians 3:16-19 (NIV)...

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, (17) so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, (18) may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, (19) and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Whether you fully understand it or not – God loves you! God doesn't just want you to know about Him. He wants you to know Him. Many people, even those who have been in the Church for years, may fail to really appreciate what that means.

"Sure, God is my Heavenly Father and I do pray to Him." - But God wants more. He doesn't just want to be a casual acquaintance with you. God wants you to fully understand the depth of His love for you and what that can mean to your entire life! God wants a deep relationship with you! Think about this truth…

I. God chose you

The One who made the stars and planets and everything in the universe, the Author of life - He made you. He purposely took a combination of specific genetic material, formed your body and placed your personal spirit into it - making you - unique from everything else in His creation. - He chose to have a relationship with you.

And that was His plan from the beginning. Let's look at how the Apostle Paul explains it in Ephesians 1:4-6 (NIV)...

For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love (5) he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will - (6) to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

Now that's in the New International Version, but I also want to look at that same verse in the New Living Translation to help us get a better grasp of what Paul was saying in the original Greek Again…

Ephesians 1:4-6 (NLT)

Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. (5) God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. (6) So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.

The fact that God wants to have this relationship with you means something. And when we respond and choose to have a relationship with Him...

A. God adopts you

This is a theological truth that can completely change the way you understand yourself and your entire life! The supreme being in the universe chose to make you and He chose to have a relationship with you! And God's desire has always been to adopt you into His family. Let that sink in...

I know a little about adoption. My oldest daughter Josie is biologically my flesh and blood. She has every legal right and privilege as my daughter. She is entitled to any inheritance I might leave. She has a very special relationship with me as my daughter and I love her.

My son Winston is not biologically related to me in any way, shape, or form. But because we chose to bring him into our family – he has been a 'Buche' from day one. He, too, now has every legal right and privilege and a share of any inheritance. He has a very special relationship with me as my son and I love him. Despite the fact that Josie is biologically related to me – her legal relationship and privilege is exactly the same as Winston's.

And why does that matter for you? Think about how God the Father loves Jesus, His Son. Think about that relationship and then understand what that means for us, who God chose to adopt into His family. When you are adopted by God the Father, you become a child of God with all the rights and privileges that come with being part of His family - including an inheritance that comes through Christ.

And we need to understand that God chose you, because and despite the fact that…

B. God knows you

For some of us - to know us is to love us, right? For others - when we look at our past, who we've been, what we've done - it's hard to imagine that God could possibly love someone like us. Sometimes we think we need to hide who we truly are - because if God actually knew who we really were in our hearts - would He have chosen to allow Jesus to die in our place...? - But He does know us...

When Peter saw Jesus' miracles and realized who He was, he told Jesus, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" God knew exactly who Peter was when He chose him. Paul had Christians jailed and was responsible for many deaths; he said of himself that he was chief among sinners. God knew exactly who Paul was when He chose Him. God knew exactly who I am – and He still chose me.

King David understood just how well God knew him when he wrote the following from Psalm 139:2-14 (NIV)...

You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. (3) You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. (4) Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD. (5) You hem me in - behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. (6) Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. (7) Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?

(8) If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. (9) If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, (10) even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. (11) If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," (12) even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.

(13) For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. (14) I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

It wasn't an accident that God chose you. He knew exactly who you were and He still chose you. God intentionally, specifically made you. And scripture makes the truth clear…

II. God is for you

We sing the song - "Who You Say I Am" - we sing the phrase, "I am chosen, Not forsaken, I am who You say I am, You are for me, Not against me, I am who You say I am". As I was first learning that song, I went to scripture to make sure those lyrics were Biblical. I sort of struggled with that line 'You are for me'. I thought, if anything, I should be for Him - right? - Not Him for me...?

But Biblically speaking - it is correct! I mean, yes, I should be for Him - but what does that change? Me being 'for God' - that's fine, but what do I 'bring to the table', so to speak...? But if God is for me - that's infinitely better for me! That changes everything!

It's not like I now have some 'magic genie' who is for me, in my corner waiting to grant my wishes. In the stories, a genie is a slave to the master and must grant his wishes. The reality is - I have God in my corner who is so much smarter than I am and I am in submission to Him and His plans and desires. When God is for me - I have access to the blessings and wisdom and riches of His eternal kingdom! Who needs a genie when God is for them?

Romans 8:31-34 (NIV)

What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? (32) He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? (33) Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. (34) Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died - more than that, who was raised to life - is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

Face it – God loves you and is for you! And according to scripture, it appears that there's nothing you can do to stop Him from loving you!

One of the more frustrating things in ministry is when someone says something to me, like, "I don't think God could forgive someone like me." – or, "I'm just not good enough – God couldn't possibly love me."

Of course you're not good enough! That's the whole point! None of us are 'good enough'. If you were good enough to actually deserve God's love, you wouldn't need a Savior; you wouldn't need Jesus. But because we are flawed, sinful people – because I am not good enough, God has mercy on me and still loves me. God is for you even though...

A. You are flawed

Many people believe God is up in Heaven waiting and watching, just hoping to catch them doing something wrong and then 'zap'! That's not the picture we see of a loving God under the New Covenant through Jesus. What we actually see is…

Romans 5:8 (NIV)

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Jesus came for the lost, which is what we were before God's amazing love. God isn't for me because it's some wonderful benefit to Him - He is for me despite my flaws. But there's a difference between saying, "God loves you!" and "God accepts everything you do." God is not saying, "I love you and you are perfect just the way you are!" God's love means my sin doesn't make Him stop loving me. God knew exactly what He was getting when He chose me.

God knew that you wouldn't be perfect. There would be times that you would accidentally disobey Him, and many times that you would intentionally disobey Him. He knew you'd lose your temper, you'd lie, you'd sometimes complain and blame Him for bad things in your life and even occasionally lose faith in Him. God knew you would be a 'sinner' – and He chose you anyway.

Because God chose you before you chose Him, because He wants you in His family, because He is for you and He knows you are flawed - God's plan for you is to allow Him to transform you to...

B. Become like Jesus

God doesn't want a relationship with you for what you can do for Him. Listen to that closely - God doesn't want a relationship with you for what you can do for Him. God doesn't need you, as if He's lacking something that only you could give Him. God loves you and wants to have a relationship with you to bless you because you are His!

I've shared this story before - years ago we had a bird in a tree off our front porch. He tried to fly through the closed window of our garage. He tried over and over to fly through that window, but every time he bumped into the glass and had to fly back to the tree. He did that for hours every day - for over a week! (Even God rested on the seventh day...) Josie gave him the name 'Mr. Whackadoodle' - which seemed pretty appropriate.

He kept flying into the window because he was sure that this time it was going to work; this time would be different than the last hundred attempts. - That was one dumb bird. It's a good thing that we're never like that...right...?

A lot of people decide that they would be better off somehow following their own plans even when those plans directly contradict what scripture clearly states. And those plans don't work - but they keep trying over and over, sure that this time it will.

There are others who try on their own to become better people, only to mess up and start all over. But God has a better plan for you, a plan that will bring you peace and happiness that you can't get any other way. We won't always understand it all, and it won't always be comfortable - but His plan is for you to let Him change you, to become more like Jesus.

Paul was talking about the law of the Old Covenant compared to the New Covenant in Jesus when he wrote this, in 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 (NIV)...

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. (18) And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

God's plan was to free you from the power of sin so that you could then become more like Jesus. And ultimately, through all of our experiences – good and bad – if we follow Him, we will. We will become more patient, and faithful, and loving, and compassionate. God wants to use everything that happens to us in this life to mold us into people who look more like Jesus – if we let Him.

But here's where I want to come back to the question we started with: Do I really believe that God loves me? Not just when I'm doing well, not just when I've been obedient, not just when life is going the way I want. What about when I fail? What about when I'm hurting? What about when I don't understand what God is doing? What about when I'm facing something I don't think I can handle? - Is God still for me then?

Romans 8:35-39 (NIV)

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? (36) As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." (37) No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

(38) For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, (39) neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So What?

If God really loves me like that, what changes? I don't have to live believing I'm worthless. I don't have to spend my life trying to earn God's love. I don't have to hide from God when I fail. I don't have to believe that suffering means God has abandoned me. And I don't have to live my life trying to make my plan work. I can trust Him completely. Because I know this: He knows me. He chose me. He is for me. And nothing can separate me from His love.

AND - because God loves me - I can share His love with others! If I have received this kind of love from God, how can I keep it to myself? What is the most loving thing you can do for someone who's lost? Give them directions. But what if they don't even know they're lost? Should we just let them wander until it's too late and they finally figure it out? No. The loving thing is to reach out to those who are lost and help them understand the way - Jesus and Him only. Don't keep God's amazing love to yourself – go out and share it with those who need it!