Chosen to Worship

It’s so great to worship with you today. You can go ahead and have a seat. And man, it is fired up in here. There is a great energy and joy in the Lord in the house today. You know, I was told that we had five Gospel City weddings in the house. That’s something to praise God for. I got to officiate our own Sammy Hernandez’ wedding yesterday. And so he is officially hitched. But there were four other weddings, and Pastor Nathan did one and Pastor Tyler did one. And some of our members were jumping all around to different weddings. But God is glorified when people are married. Amen? And so it was just a glorious day celebrating that.

Go ahead and open your Bibles this morning to Ephesians chapter 1. And we’re going to be in verses 3-6 today. But many of you know that I have a passion for worship, for biblical worship. When we say the word worship around here in our culture, everyone makes fun of me and says that I sound like I’m saying “warship.” whatever. But when we say the word worship you know I think we often think about music. We often think about singing. We think about this portion of the service that just happened.

But you know that worship is so much more than that, right? Worship is more than a song. Worship is a posture of the heart. And worship is meant to be a response to the revelation of Jesus. So God has revealed Himself to us through the Word of God and it is our proper response as the people of God to stop and to notice, to taste and to see and to respond to the glory of God.

And when you read the Bible there’s probably certain people that maybe you relate to more than others. I’ve always loved King David. I love his passion. I love how he danced undignified in the streets when the presence of God came into the city. I love the poetic nature in which he writes the Psalms. My heart is just drawn to that.

But there’s something that I’ve come to admire about the apostle Paul. I don’t know if the apostle Paul would be considered a worship leader by today’s standards. No idea if he was musical. No idea if he could sing a lick. Judging by his long-winded, run on sentneces, one of which we’ll start to look at today, he wasn’t necessarily the most poetic in nature. But I have come to believe that the apostle Paul may be the greatest worship leader that the world has ever known.

And I remember being struck by some of his epistles and his writings when I was in school. And I made an observation that the apostle Paul seems to be a master at…now I’m going to give you a theological term, ok? You don’t have to know all the theological terms, but sometimes it’s good to know like deep theological terms. The apostle Paul seems to be a master at the theological term, the worship sandwich. That’s something that I coined in college.

And what I noticed is that Paul is a theological genius, ok? He’s always conveying some kind of deep doctrine and yet somehow in all of his writings he is able to sandwich all of that theological truth and all of that deep doctrine between two statements of worship, almost every time. He begins with a statement of exaltation and praise to the God of glory and he conveys all of that theological truth. And then he ends always to the promise of the glory of God.

And it’s because Jesus was Paul’s first love. And it’s because Paul owed everything about his salvation to the triune God that we just sang about this morning. And Paul knew that the chief end of man was to glorify God and to love the Lord with all his heart, soul, mind and strength.

There may be no greater example of this than Paul’s letter to the Ephesians and the glorious truth packed in chapters 1-3 that we will look at this fall. We’re kind of starting a series that will take us through the fall called “Riches in Christ.” But the glorious truth packed in chapters 1-3 should stoke the fire and the heart of every believer to worship Jesus Christ.

In chapters 1-3 Paul is masterfully piling logs of truth on the firepits of our hearts so that the human spirit would be ignited into an inferno of blazing hot worship to Jesus Christ. And that’s exactly what happens as we jump into verse 3 this morning. The big idea for today’s message is this: God loved me before I loved Him, so that one day I could love Him to the praise of His glorious grace. God loved me before I loved Him, so that one day I could love Him to the praise of His glorious grace.

If I do my job right this morning, when we get to the end of these three verses and as we weave our way through these three verses, you should be overwhelmed at God’s love for you. You should stand in awe at what God has done in order to save you and to redeem you and to draw you to HImself. I pray that we would be moved to a greater, a deeper worship of the God of glory as we get to the end of these three verses this morning.

So you should consider it a privilege that God has brought you to church here today. Because this is everything, ok? So let’s read chapter 1 verses 3-6 and then I’m going to pray because we need the Spirit of God here this morning. And then we will dive in together. Let’s read Ephesians 1 starting in verse 3. Now hear the Word of the Lord.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. (Ephesians 1:3-6)

Let’s pray together. Father, we come and we invite You to move among us. Lord this morning as we step into the room, we recognize that we are sinful, that we are finite, that our minds are small, Lord that You are great and that You are vast and that You are holy and other. And there is none like you in all the earth. Father, would You be gracious to us today? Would You cause Your Spirit to illuminate the words on these pages to our hearts today? And would You move us to worship You, the almighty God? In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

Now as we get into Ephesians chapter 1, there are a few notable things to mention. So verses 3 all the way through 14 are actually one giant sentence in the original Greek language. It makes up over 200 words in the Greek. So Paul, a worshiper, he was pretty excited. Didn’t even take time to put a period. He’s just like writing furiously the glorious truths of salvation.

But it’s also notable that Paul masterfully weaves in each member of the Trinity in verses 3-14. Ok? So in verses 3-14 in the original Greek and in our text we have some periods. But you get the idea. But in those fourteen verses we see the Father elects to the praise of His glory, the Son redeems to the praise of His glory and we see that the Spirit seals the believer to the praise of His glory. All that this first sentence in the original Greek aims to convey is to the praise of His glorious grace. Because the only proper response to our position with God in Christ is worship.

And so we’re only going to look at 3-6 today. But Paul ends, “To the praise of his glorious grace,” and he begins this worship sandwich with a statement of worship. Ok?

Look in verse 3. This is point number one. I’ll give you point one first. God has given you so much more than you can fathom, so pour out your praise to His grace. God has given you so much more than you fathom, so pour out your praise to His grace. Now look at verse 3 as we dive in.

And Paul starts, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” So Paul begins this massive sentence to the Ephesians with a traditional Hebrew way of giving praise and honor to God. He said, “Blessed be,” which is speaking favorably of God, speaking highly of God. Ultimately Paul begins pronouncing blessing to God but also giving to God what is already His. Paul is really proclaiming that God is blessed.

And we’ve seen this kind of sentiment even as we read in the “Summer in the Psalms”. We were constantly seeing “Blessed be the God of Israel. Blessed be the God our rock” in Genesis 9. And so Paul, he’s giving worth to God through this statement, declaring that God is blessed.

But what’s not so traditional about Paul starting the letter is the way that he addresses God. He says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Now throughout the Old Testament it would have been the Israelites blessing Yahweh. It would have been the Israelites blessing the God of Israel. In Genesis 9:26 it says, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem.”

And even as we turn a page from the Old Testament into the New Testament, we see Zechariah in Luke 1:68 he declares, “Blessed be the God of Israel.” But Paul, remember, is an apostle to the Gentiles. And now having seen the redemption of both Jews and Gentiles through the message of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection, it is no longer the God of Israel.

But as Paul begins to write, he is declaring and he is making known the name of a God who is of every tribe, every tongue and every nation. Paul writes, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Because we’re living in the new covenant. Our King has come. Your kingdom come; your will be done. Paul is testifying of a new covenant.

One commentator writes this and I just think it’s worth noting. “The name of God has been updated from His identity with theocratic Israel to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ to signal the international character of the new covenant in contrast with the old. So in the Old Testament God had a people. God had the nation of Israel. When Jesus came, when the kingdom came, when the new covenant came, God now is a God of all people. God is a God of the nations, every tribe, tongue and nation.

Now why is Pual starting off worshiping and proclaiming who God is? God is worthy to be worshiped. But he goes on in verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Paul bursts forth blessing God because of the blessings that he has received from the God of glory, undeserved blessings.

This first sentence of this first verse should cause us to ask three questions. How has God blessed us? What has God blessed us with? And where is the blessing?

So let’s start with the first one. How has God blessed us? The Scripture says He has blessed us in Christ. I told you last week that’s going to be an important phrase as we jump into the book of Ephesians. It’s massively contrary to the way that the world thinks. See, the world, maybe they don’t think a whole lot about God. I think a lot of times the world thinks that we’re all children of God, that we come into this world and the big man upstairs will take care of everything if we do the right things, if we are good people, if we go the right way.

But the Bible teaches that we are not born children of God. We are born enemies of God. We are actually children of the devil when we are born. But the beauty of the gospel is seen in Romans 5:8 that God demonstrates His love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, while we were still enemies, while we were still children of the devil, Jesus Christ died for us.

And it’s through Christ’s death on the cross that we get to be reconciled to a God who is high and holy, no longer recipients of His wrath, but now we become children who get to gain from His blessing. So that’s how God has blessed us. He has put you in Christ.

But now what has God blessed us with? It says, “Blessed be the God of our Father and Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing.” Not one spiritual blessing. Not a couple spiritual blessings. Every spiritual blessing. Our God is not a God of scarcity, but He is a God of abundance. And those who are His children, He is pouring out His love. He is pouring out His grace, pouring out His mercy, pouring out blessing on you if you are a child of God.

But every spiritual blessing, it’s talking about the Spirit of God that is in you. Every possible blessing that is bestowed or ignited in you is dispensed through the Holy Spirit of God that has been placed inside of you. The promise of the Father that has come from heaven has been placed inside of believers for regeneration. And if the Holy Spirit is alive in you, then the wealth of the blessings of God will never run dry.

Consider just a small list of these spiritual blessings. The Spirit that is in the believer, it regenerates us. John 3:5 Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus and it says, “You must be born of the spirit. Anyone who is not born of the spirit will perish.” The Spirit sanctifies us. The Spirit of God is making us holy. The Spirit of God has begun a good work in us. It will be completed in the day of Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 3:18 talks about how we are being transformed from one degree of glory to the next. The Spirit is sanctifying you and making you more like Christ. The Spirit illuminates the truth of God’s revealed Word. We were once blind, but now you have come to see. Paul even prays later in Ephesians that the eyes of our hearts would be enlightened to the words that God has revealed. The Spirit of God is the one that enlightens those words to our hearts for our understanding that we may be careful to obey Him and to walk in Him.

The Spirit is the downpayment future guarantee of future salvation. The Spirit is the means by which we bless others. God has given every person in this room a spiritual gift. Ephesians refers to us as a Body. We all bring a different Body member to this. Everything is so important. But we get to serve one another and bless one another with the spiritual gifts that God has given us as He’s building up a Body unto Himself.

1 Corinthians 12:11 says, “All of these gifts are empowered by one and the same spirit who apportions to each one individually as he wills.” So many blessings. I didn’t even talk about the fruit of the Spirit. You, a child of the world, with the Spirit of God you have the hope of being someone who has love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and gentleness and self-control radiating from your life as you follow God.

So many blessings, so many spiritual blessings. Now where is the blessing? Look in verse 3. He’s given you every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. The blessings from God are in the spiritual realm. They come from the heavenly places.

I mentioned last week that our enemy as believers is not against flesh and blood. Sure, there’s a lot raging in the world. But as believers our biggest concern should be the spiritual battle that we’re in. Rulers, cosmic powers, spiritual forces. And absolutely you’re going to face hardships and trials on this earth. The battle is here but they pale in comparison to the spiritual forces of evil. And that’s why we must be strong in the Lord.

But the same is true with the spiritual blessings that God bestows on us. You may have many, many blessings from a materialistic, worldly standpoint. But they pale in comparison to the spiritual blessings that have been bestowed on every believer. The opposite is also true. You may have nothing from the world’s standards. You may be penniless. You may be a slave. But in Christ you have every spiritual blessing that heaven has to offer.

The richest person here on this earth without Christ is the poorest person by the spiritual standards that God talks about. The poorest person on this planet by the Lord’s standards who is in Christ, is rich beyond measure, has wealth beyond measure because the spiritual blessings that are in the heavenly places have been bestowed upon you. It’s why as believers we have to get our eyes off of the things of this world. It’s so tempting.

Every day you wake up you’re tempted to get your eyes on lesser things. But Colossians 3:1-3 says, “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above, not on the things that are here on the earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ is God.”

That’s where we long to be. That’s where the spiritual blessings come from. That’s where I need to be, long to be, need to think about. It needs to move me in worship every day. God has given you so much more than you can fathom. So you’ve got to give Him all of your worship.

Now that leads us to point number two. God has chosen to adopt you as His own, so pour out your praise to His grace. God has chosen to adopt you as His own, so pour out your praise to His grace. Let’s look in verses 4-5 as Paul continues to write. He’s given you every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Now verse 4. Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love he predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ.

So verse 4, the answer is kind of a fourth question for us. Who has God blessed? To whom has God bestowed on every spiritual blessing? Well verse 14 tells us. To those whom he chose before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless, adopted children through Jesus Christ. Paul is writing the “us” in this passage of Scripture is the church in Ephesus, the believers in Ephesus. He’s writing to the Bride of Christ, to the new society that’s beginning to be built up with Jesus as the head, those who are being saved. He’s writing to those who have called upon the name of the Lord.

And for all of us here today who truly believe that God is God, if you truly believe that God is holy and God is other and God is high and lifted up and He is ruling and reigning on His throne, Ephesians 1:4 helps us see God’s divine sovereignty in salvation. Verse 4 helps us see God’s divine sovereignty in this salvation that we have come to experience and to know in Christ Jesus. It’s really the big idea of this message that God loved you before you ever loved Him, so that one day you could love Him to the praise of His glorious grace.

Have you ever heard the sentiment, “Before you were even a thought.” Like did your parents ever say that to you or you say to your parents? Like my kids will be like playing basketball, trying to spin a basketball or something. And they’ll throw it to me and I’ll effortlessly spin a basketball on my finger because I’m like a Harlem Globetrotter. And they’re like, “Whoa Dad! You can do that?”

And I’ll be like, “I was spinning basketballs on my finger before you were ever a thought.” And they look at me. But hear this. Before you were ever a thought to anyone on this planet, before you were ever a thought to your parents, your grandparents, anyone on the earth, you were thought to God. You were a thought to God. You were in the God of glory’s mind’s eye and in His plan.

And before time began, God was devising a plan with Jesus and the Spirit whom He existed perfectly in unity with. And they were devising, He was devising, a plan where He would create the world, He would see sin curse the world, He would send His only Son Jesus to die for the sin of the world and He would begin a holy and blameless society of people through the death of Jesus. And it’s made up of people who would repent and believe in the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And in God’s love He looked down through the portal of time and He had His heart set on you. He had His heart set on you from before the foundation of the world. If you have a proper view of the magnitude of God this morning, if you have a proper view of your own sinful humanity that you have brought into this place this morning, this truth should absolutely blow your mind.

God chose you in Him before the foundation of the world. God’s redeeming love was set on you before the foundation of the world. God’s plan to redeem you from the darkness of this world was in His heart in eternity past. God’s willingness to pour out His wrath on His perfect Son for you was before He ever created anything.

What grace. What love. I want you to see what it says in Revelation 13:8. At the end, this is time when the antichrist will be rampant on the earth. Revelation 13:8 says, And all who dwell on earth will worship it (those who dwell on earth will worship the antichrist) except for everyone whose name, or everyone will worship it, all those whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the Book of Life of the Lamb who was slain.

God was thinking of you before the foundation of the world because He wrote your name in the Lamb’s Book of Life that you might be a chosen child of God. And the Scripture says in verse 4 that He chose you to be holy and blameless. He set His affections on you and He set His call on your life. And you are already holy and blameless before the God of glory. Already.

God looks at you and He doesn’t see your imperfections and your sin. If you are in Christ, He sees that you are holy and you are blameless. And yet you are very much called to live a holy life here on the earth. You’re very much called to live a blameless life here on the earth.

And you’re like, “Well I wake up every day and I don’t feel like I’m very holy or I’m very blameless.” You’re living in the already but not yet. And Paul, he helps us later in Ephesians to walk in a manner worthy of this calling that you have been called. You, if you’re a child of God, you’re already holy and blameless. But man, we’ve got some work to do if we’re going to walk in a manner worthy of that calling in Christ.

Some of you make it way too hard on yourself. We do. We’re not making this hard on God when we sin. We are making it hard on ourselves. Some of us work way too hard to get away from God. Some of us work way too hard to gratify the lusts of our flesh and the lusts that we have here on the earth.

And you know that God just keeps drawing you. You can’t get away from God. You can’t get away from this message. You can’t get away from this conviction. And so you come here and you feel guilty and you pray and you respond and you leave and you just dive right back into the things of the world. And God draws you. And you bring heartache on your life because you’re choosing to do things in your own strength.

This is why as believers we must give up control. It’s why you have to be dependent. It’s why you can’t be strong in yourself. You have to be strong in the Lord. And the Bible speaks of people in two categories. You’re either a slave to the world or you’re a slave to Christ.

I feel this in my life. There are plenty of days where I wake up and I do not want to choose God. Plenty of days where I wake up and my attitude stinks and I would rather satisfy the way that I feel by going this direction. And yet I’m a slave to Christ at this point in my life. I have come to know by the Spirit of God that if I go this way it’s going to bring heartache in my life and I’m going to have to repent and I’m going to have to come crawling back to God under the heavy weight of conviction.

And yet because of the Spirit of God in my life and because I’m a slave to Christ, I have to now die to myself so that I might live unto righteousness. That’s what being a believer looks like. That’s what being a child of God looks like. The Spirit of God in you producing you walking in the way of the Lord.

And you say, “Well, why should God get to choose that for me?” The question is probably here. Why shouldn’t I get to choose God? First off, why should you get to choose and why should perfect, holy God, never did anything wrong, created you, not get to choose?

But more importantly, you need to choose God. Every person in this room needs to choose to follow the God of glory. And when you choose to follow Him, if you truly choose to follow God, you’ll come to find out that He’s been thinking about you long before you ever had a desire to trust and obey Him. And you’ll find out when you call upon the name of the Lord that you’ve got nothing good to bring, but He’s already orchestrated so much blessing on your behalf.

And you’ll quickly realize once you’ve been saved by the grace of God that this is not of your own doing but it is a gift of God. Paul tells us it’s a gift set in time before the foundation of the world. Don’t miss God’s love poured out on those whom He saves.

Now it’s no secret that we get uncomfortable as a people when we start throwing around God’s choice. What about man’s responsibility? Got some big words in here today. I’ve talked to a lot of people who are like, I believe God is sovereign. I just don’t believe in predestination. I’m like, Well, you’re probably reading the wrong Bible because Paul uses that word like a ton in the first chapter.

Either you’re jacked this morning out of your mind or you’re cringing this morning in your seat or you’re offended. And I’ve got people waiting to take the email so if you could, shoot them my way. Or your human reasoning is just all over the place today. But none more than me. Just let me be honest with you.

I can point to so many different times in my life over the last fifteen years as God has been drawing me and teaching me where I’ve had sleepless nights thinking about these things, rationalizing over these things, getting on Youtube, watching debate after debate, watching message after message, reading book after book, trying to piece it all together, trying to match all the different verses.

And at some point you have to admit as you step back from where you are in your position with Christ today, you have to acknowledge that you won’t be able to reconcile all of the mystery that God has to offer. You certainly can’t lean on your own understanding. And the Bible tells us not to, which means that we’re prone to.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He’ll direct the path. So I can’t figure this all out. I can’t rationalize all this. I can’t lean on my own understanding. But I’ve got to trust in God. That’s faith. You have to believe that God is so much bigger and greater in this whole conversation than what you bring to the table.

And I think verse 5, which some people can be intimidated by, you’ve got to catch the massive picture of God’s love in verse 5. Look at it. End of verse 4. It says, “In love He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ.” Any choosing, any predestining that God does can only be done in holy, perfect love that honestly our brains probably don’t have a category for. My mind is far too small to comprehend the kind of love that God has for me.

I can’t imagine when I stand in His presence in heaven and He pours forth His love and He pours forth His love and His joy over His children. It’ll be like a waterfall that I’m not ready to experience, the glory of God in His presence. How mind-blowing will that be? But for now my mind can’t even comprehend why God would save me when I struggle to obey and worship Him almost every day.

The only answer I can come up with is because He loves. And He loved you far before you loved Him. And Scripture says in verse 5 that it was in love that He predestined us for adoption to Himself. God is so gracious and God is so loving that He adopts His enemies to be His children. Don’t miss that. God adopts His enemies to be His children.

It’s interesting, you know, the language of adoption that Paul uses as it pertains to the Roman culture that he was in as he was writing. This is why Paul is just such a great pastor, teacher. He’s contextualizing as he’s writing to the Ephesians.

But there are a lot of reasons to adopt in our culture today. Perhaps you can’t have biological children so you’ve opened your home, you’ve adopted children. Maybe you just have a heart for orphans as God has a heart for orphans. And you’ve had time and you’ve had space and you’ve had resources and you opened your hands to adoption. I love that.

My family, both on Nicole’s side and my side, have been blessed by adoption. And we have seen the beauty. And I don’t know that there’s any better picture of the gospel on display than when we open our hands to other children that the Lord would bring into our homes. My father-in-law adopted two sons. And he often says, “I have six children. Two are adopted but I forget which two.” Because they’re just like part of the family, man. They’re in the family.

And that’s exactly the picture of the gospel. When God adopts us into His family, we stand shoulder to shoulder with His love that He lavishes upon us. I have such a heart for that. But in the Roman world, adoption was a means for passing on an inheritance or a family legacy. So you might have had a farm to pass on or a business to pass on or a name to pass on.

And the Romans, they wouldn’t pass on that legacy to a daughter. They wouldn’t pass that on to a slave. So if there wasn’t a son in the family, they would adopt a son in order to pass on the family legacy, to pass on the inheritance. So an example is Julius Caesar. He didn’t have a son so he adopted Octavian as his son, and his legacy was passed on. And Octavian became Caesar Augustus, who was the Caesar when Jesus was born.

So adoption in the Roman world was really a means of transaction or personal gain. But listen. God’s adoption of us who are in Christ is so much more beautiful than this. Pure holy love motivated God to adopt you. Sit in it. Marvel at it. Pure holy love motivated God to adopt you as His own. And get this. God did not need an heir. God already had a son. God already had a son to pass on His inheritance to, to pass on all of the blessing to. God had all that He needed and yet He adopted you so that you could receive the inheritance of His grace, so that You could have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

And even better (it gets better) where the Romans looked down on slaves, where the Romans looked down on women, God adopts slaves and women in the same love He adopts sons. Because in Christ there is no male or female. There is no slave or free. Through the blood of Jesus, we are one in Christ and sons and daughters of the God of glory who loved us before we loved Him, so that we could love Him to the praise of His glorious grace.

God’s adoption of us through Jesus Christ, as the text says, takes His love even further. Not only did He not need to adopt us, but He chose to adopt us by choosing to kill His only begotten Son. He chose to love you and He sent His Son to be absolutely hated by the world. Though you didn’t deserve to live, God sent Jesus to die on a cross in your place as a substitute for your sin. And He didn’t deserve to die.

And it’s through Jesus’ bloodshed, death, burial and resurrection that God’s love, God’s rescue plan and adoption is carried out in the lives of all who will call upon the name of the Lord. And so you have to ask yourself this this morning. Why would God do it? Absolutely it’s His love. Absolutely it’s because He loves you. But ultimately it’s because He is glorifying Himself in the rightful that He deserves, and He wants you to take part in it. It’s all a display of the glory of God.

Point number three this morning is this. God has restored your ability to do what He created you to do for, so glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 5 as it closes. This adoption to Himself as sons of Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will. Verse 6. To the praise of His glorious grace with which He has blessed us in the beloved.

You have been created to worship God. He created you in His image. He created you to have a relationship with Him, created you to continually respond to His majesty and HIs goodness. And yet sin tainted it all. But if you are in Christ today you should stand in awe saying, “Why would God choose me?”

And the answer is there in Ephesians 1:5-6. He saved you according to the purpose of his will and to the praise of his glorious grace. God loves you enough to make you a part of His purpose. It was His will to choose you as His own beloved child. It was God’s will to adopt you as a son or daughter in Christ. It was His will to bestow on you every spiritual blessing that heaven has to offer. It was His will to save you with His glorious grace, His free, unmerited favor.

And He saved you so that you would glorify Him, so that you would exalt Him, so that you would step back and you would truly say, “Wow, how did I get here? This is all the glory of God, the majesty of God and His love poured out on me, a sinner who doesn’t deserve any of it!” Hallelujah for His glorious grace. Oh praise His glorious grace!

And If we’re honest this morning, you and I know that we don’t deserve this. We don’t deserve it. We 100% deserve hell, 100% we are guilty in regards to the holiness of God. God would be perfectly loving if He sent every human being to hell, apart from His grace, for eternity. Because if God is love then He must be just. And if God is just toward evil, then He has to punish evil. And we are all children of wrath.

But God. But God is rich in mercy. And because of the great love with which He loved us, in love He has chosen to build up a Body of sons and daughters. He has chosen to adopt you as His own. And He has made you clean by the blood of the Lamb. And so if you’ll have a right view of your salvation today, you know that you didn’t do this on your own.

As you sit there, as you think about your life in Christ, if you’re truly in Christ and following the Lord, you know that you did not do this on your own. You know that God is sovereign in your life and in your salvation. Here’s how I know. Because you pray. You pray and you thank God for saving you. You sing and you testify of your testimony. And you don’t tell your testimony like look at what I’ve done. You say, “This is what God has done. This is what I was before Christ. This is who I am after Christ. I once was blind but now I see.”

You also pray for the salvation of your family and friends. I mean man, you preach the gospel. You evangelize. You share. But can you change someone’s heart? Can you truly change someone’s soul? And so when you go to God you beg Him, “Lord, open their heart! Open their life that they might see this glorious gospel and draw them to Yourself.”

But because it was God’s work and His purpose to save us according to His will, our purpose in life has to become boasting about His glorious grace. Don’t boast in your riches. Don’t boast in your wealth. Boast that you understand and know the God of glory. Our purpose becomes glorifying the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Before I wrap up with just a few things that’ll help you, you might ask, “Well why did God do it this way? If He’s so high and holy, why did He allow sin to come into the world? And why do I need adopted? And why do I struggle with sin?”

Imagine living life without experiencing grace. What does the grace of God cause you to do? It causes me to worship. When I step back and say, “I can’t figure this out. I can’t figure out why God would do it, but I know I have grace.” And man, my arms want to extend to heaven and my voice wants to raise and I want to exalt the God of glory for the grace that He’s had on me.

Imagine going through life without the cross. If God before the foundation of the world wouldn’t have devised a plan where He would kill His own Son on a cross so that He could adopt you as his sons and daughters, how lost would we be? What would this life be for? How meaningless would it be?

The cross is folly to those who are perishing, but it’s become everything to us who are in Christ! Imagine going through life not knowing about the resurrection, not knowing that Jesus had defeated death and the grave. How terrifying would that be? How scary would death be?

And yet because God devised a glorious plan to bring glory to Himself before the foundation of the world, we know that Jesus came out of His grave and defeated death and He’s drawn us to Himself. And we don’t have to fear death anymore because one day we will stand before Him in heaven where He’s preparing a place for us. And all of that makes me want to glorify God to the praise of His glorious grace. And it should cause you to do the same. Amen.

Now there’s a few things that I want to just kind of tie a bow on it with as you leave today. The Bible is clear of a few things. Here are three things that’ll be helpful to you. The Bible is clear that God is sovereign over salvation before the foundation of the world. God is sovereign over salvation before the foundation of the world. He’s in charge of it. It was His idea. He loves you. We looked at that in Ephesians chapter 1.

Here’s another statement from Paul. 2 Timothy 1:9 Paul says, God saved us and called us to a holy calling. Same thing as Ephesians. Not because of our works. So it’s not because of what you’ve done, not because of your strength, not because of your faith, not because of the good things that you’ve done. Not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ before the ages began.

There it is. Before the ages began God called you according to His purpose and grace. John 6:44 Jesus says, No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. The Father does the drawing of His children. I love Acts whenever Paul was in Corinth and he was a little frightened about sharing the gospel. And God says, “Go into the sin city. I have many in that city who are my people.”

God has many in this city of Michiana who are His people. And God says, “Go share the gospel.” And you know what Paul did? “I don’t know who God’s people are. I’m going to preach the gospel as if everybody in this place should repent and believe,” because that’s what you should do. And the Father will draw you to Himself if you’re a chosen child of God.

Now number two, the Bible is clear that all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. The Bible is clear that all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Romans 10:11-13. Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame, for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. For the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

You might be sitting here today and you’re like, “How do I know if I’m chosen? Did God choose me? Did He not?” If you’re asking that question, my response to you is, “Repent and believe and follow the Lord, and call upon the name of the Lord who is worthy and who is able to save you.” Here’s Paul saying yo, God chose us before the foundation of the world. And then to unbelievers he says, “All who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved,” with urgency.

That leads us to number three. The Bible is clear that the gospel is God’s message for drawing His children to Himself. The gospel is God’s message for drawing His children to Himself.

Paul says in Romans 1:16, For I am unashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God to salvation for all who believe. The fact that God is sovereign over salvation didn’t deter Paul from sitting back and saying, well, God has got it all. I’ll just sit here and twiddle my thumbs till I get to heaven.

It’s the fact that God is sovereign and He gave us the message of the gospel that created Paul to go with urgency and declare I’m unashamed of it and you need to hear it! In Romans 10:14 Paul says, How then will they call on him whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

How is God going to draw people? God is so big, so in control. But His method of getting His children to Himself, of drawing His children to Himself, is the church here on earth, the New Covenant people, the new society that He is building up with Jesus as the Head, getting busy.

So there should be a burning in your seat right now to worship God to the praise of His glorious grace and to tell somebody about the gospel. Because God wants to draw His children to Himself all around the world. It’s why we need to be a people who live sent from that seat every single week to your neighborhood, to your community, to your workplace, to your school, to the world.

I pray that because of the glorious gospel that we preach here and the truth that God is sovereign over salvation, it should cause some people to say, “Lord, here am I. Send me!” That’s exactly what Isaiah did when he stood before the throne room in the glory of God. He saw the holiness of God. He saw God high and lifted up on the praise of His glorious grace and what did he do? He said, “Woe is me,” worshiped and he saw his sinfulness. And then he said, “Here am I. Send me.” Let me get busy.

And God sent him to do something that was pretty hard. It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t comfortable. And yet he knew that his mission in life was to proclaim Jesus Christ to all who would repent and believe.

I want to invite you to stand and just bow your heads for a moment. We’re going to go out worshiping. It’s the only proper response to this truth this morning. But just bow your heads for a moment. If you have questions about salvation there’s gonna be elders, pastors down here at the end of the service. We would love to talk with you, pray with you. God loved you so much, before you ever loved Him, so that you could love Him to the praise of His glorious grace. Let’s pray.

Father, we come and we just marvel at Your love for us. We stand in awe of Your goodness toward us. Lord, we get honest and we recognize that we don’t deserve what we have. And Yet God, You have poured out blessing, more than we could ever fathom. And You have adopted us as Your own. Lord, would You remind us of this glorious salvation? Would You restore to us the joy of our salvation this morning as we look and as we stare at Your divine goodness, at Your rescuing plan that You began before the foundation of the world?

Thank You that You thought of me. And God would it cause us to exalt You, to worship You, to proclaim what You have done and to tell others about it all around the world? In Jesus’ mighty name, we respond in worship. Amen.