The Confident Hope Of A Called Community Series

The Confident Hope of a Called Community

We continue in our series on Discovering Your Destiny. Recently we have been focusing on Discovering our calling, this morning we are going to consider what it means to be 'A Called Community'.

Dictionary.com defines the word Called as: to command or invite or request or ask to come; a summons, invitation, or bidding.

Dictionary.com defines the word Community as: a social, religious, occupational, or other group sharing common characteristics or interests and perceived or perceiving itself as distinct in some respect from the larger society within which it exists.

The Bible teaches that when we are saved through faith in Jesus as our Lord and Saviour we become children of God. The Bible says that we are part of the family of God because God has adopted us, listen to the words of the Apostle Paul from Ephesians chapter 1:

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.

Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes.

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.

So we praise God for the glorious grace He has poured out on us who belong to His dear Son.

He is so rich in kindness and grace that He purchased our freedom with the blood of His Son and forgave our sins.

He has showered His kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.

God has now revealed to us His mysterious will regarding Christ—which is to fulfil His own good plan.

And this is the plan: At the right time He will bring everything together under the authority of Christ —everything in heaven and on earth.

Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for He chose us in advance, and He makes everything work out according to His plan.

God’s purpose was that we Jews who were the first to trust in Christ would bring praise and glory to God.

And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you.

And when you believed in Christ, He identified you as His own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom He promised long ago.

The Spirit is God’s guarantee that He will give us the inheritance He promised and that He has purchased us to be His own people.

He did this so we would praise and glorify Him.

Ever since I first heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for God’s people everywhere, I have not stopped thanking God for you.

I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God.

I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope He has given to those He called—His holy people who are His rich and glorious inheritance.

I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe Him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated Him in the place of honour at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms.

Now He is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else—not only in this world but also in the world to come.

God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made Him head over all things for the benefit of the church.

And the church is His body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with Himself.

As disciples of Jesus, we are united in Christ, together we are His church, a community with shared purpose and characteristics.

Galatians 3:26-28 says: For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.

We are one in Jesus, we are a community of God’s people, God loves each of us the same, we are equal to each other.

Look at the words of Ephesians 2:19-21 So now you are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people.

You are members of God’s family. Together, we are His house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus Himself. We are carefully joined together in Him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord.