Sermon Central
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The Chosen Ones Series
Contributed by Gary Landsberg on Jun 29, 2007 (message contributor)
Summary: We are chosen by God to be His special children. There is no mistake that you were born in this world. You were born for a purpose, and we need to stand strong in that knowledge.
EPHESIANS SERIES
THE CHOSEN ONES
INTRODUCTION
1. Dearly Beloved of Jesus, thank you for coming here today. I pray that you will see Jesus today, and find out the call He has on your life. I also pray that you will allow The Holy Spirit to influence you to become more like Jesus.
2. Before I begin, I wish to state a disclaimer, and make it clear that I am not talking about any person in particular, and that I am not concerned with any minor or major problems, or malcontents in this church.
3. I want to share with you a truth today. There are some who are not happy in this world, and they are constantly miserable. If one says, “it is a wonderful day“, then they are going to disagree because they cannot help it. They wander through life finding fault in everything. In a church, they will scour the bulletin hoping against hope that there is an error that they may pounce on, and so discredit others. Or they will watch other people hoping to find sin, which they can bring to light or talk about.
4. I wish to share with you a truth. If you look hard enough, you are going to find errors in all Christians, as we are not perfect, we are forgiven, and we are also being perfected and becoming like the Perfect One, Jesus Christ.
5. Please let me share with you why we are here today. We are here to share with you the truth that you will only find life in Jesus Christ, and not in your own perfection. It has very little to do with us, as to whether we attain righteousness or secure our salvation. Our whole walk is based upon our receiving what Christ is offering to us.
6. To those who sit in the high seat of scoffers, and wish to point out the errors of others, let me first apologize to them for our sinful, error filled lives, and yet we do not have to defend ourselves to anyone, as we are special, and we have a Daddy that is quite willing and able to defend us.
7. It is TRUTH that we are going to discover and explore today. It matters very little to anyone, what philosophies man wants to come up with about every subject including God, as only what is in the Bible is that which is TRUTH. Do you want to know the TRUTH? GOOD!
8. Let us now open our Bibles to Ephesians, and see what God has to share with us today. EPH 1:11 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12 in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. 13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession--to the praise of his glory.
I. WE ARE PLANNED BY GOD.
A. God Knows You.
1. Last week we mentioned that God is all powerful, all knowing and all in control of everything. He is Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent and most of all He is to me just beautiful, wonderful, magnificent and I have a hard time believing that He chose me to be His anointed one to preach His Word.
2. Is there anyone here that believes that they may have been a mistake. You may hear parents say that you were a mistake, but that is not true. You are not a mistake to God. You were planned from the beginning. You were on the drawing board, with a name, DNA planned, life mapped out. God tells Jeremiah JER 1:5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." and the same for David, PS 119:73 Your hands made me and formed me; give me understanding to learn your commands. and the same for Gary, for Rick, for Dorothy and for each and everyone of you.
3. You are not a mistake. Never did God say, oops, we have one being born, better find a name, or figure out what we are going to do with this one. GOD KNOWS YOU, AS HE DESIGNED AND LOVINGLY MOLDED YOU, AND LAID OUT A PLAN FOR YOUR LIFE.
B. God Displays His Love To You
1. Now with this said, I want you to know, that God is a loving Gentleman, who will never force anything upon you, but will lovingly remind you of the consequences of disobedience.
