CHOSEN SERIES pt 1 : Chosen By God

1 Peter 2:9 - “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession.”

There is one race that God has appointed

Christians have been persecuted, scattered all over the world and this is how the gospel spread. With persecution the number of Christians have increased. God has a purpose when we are chosen by Him. God chooses the life for us when we are born and this life should not be taken for granted. What does it mean to be chosen. God does not see us the way the world sees us. God chose David because he does not look at the appearance. What God sees is the heart. When Prophet Samuel came to the house, Jesse lined up his six sons, who were more qualified, taller and more muscular than David. They were trained in the army, skilled fighters, educated. David was only a shepherd boy. When the Prophet Samuel came to the house to pick a king for Israel, he looked at the six brothers and chose number seven, David. David was singing, playing string instruments, writing songs, practiced shooting with his sling, protected the sheep from the wild animals. All these prepared David for something great.

John 15:16 - “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you.”

Our relationship with God is not the same with other people. What God sees in us is not the same as what the world sees in us. We think we chose God, but he chose us first. Even when we were still sinners, God gave us the grace, but we have to come to him. Your faith is not the basis of God’s choosing you, but the result of it.

Deuteronomy 7:6-8 - “The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His treasured possession, out of all the people who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set His love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all people, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that He swore to your fathers.”

This small country has God’s blessings. It is surrounded by enemies, who want Israel to vanish from the face of the earth. Even though Israel rejects Jesus, they are favored by God. THis is why it’s called “mercy and grace”, because this is something we deserve.

John 15:16 - “God’s specialty is using the least of these.”

Gideon was hiding because he was scared, yet the angel of the Lord showed up and said to him: “Greetings mighty warrior.” God can see what people can not see, what is special in people.

God chose David to be the king. The disciples of Jesus were all ordinary people: fishermen, tax collectors, regular ordinary people. Apostle Paul said, “I am the worst of all sinners.” Yet God chose him to write most of the New Testament books. 

In the Old Testament, Rahab was a prostitute, but she placed her faith in the God of Israel, not in idolatry. From Rahab came the lineage of Christ. The lineage of Christ came broken, failing people in the eyes of the world, but God chose them. 

1 Corinthians 1:26-29 - “26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards,[a] not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being[b] might boast in the presence of God.”

There are many stories in the Bible. In the Bible, Luke 13:10-17 when Jesus healed the crippled woman on the Sabbath. The woman was bent over and was crippled for 18 years. Jesus healed her and glorified God. But the ruler of the synagogue was upset because he healed on the Sabbath. The religious people looked down upon poor and ordinary people, but Jesus did not.

Mark 3:1-6, Matthew 12:9-14, Luke 6:6-11

Jesus healed the man with a withered hand in the synagogue on the Sabbath. THe scribes and the Pharisees got upset. And Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it”? John 9 Jesus healed the blind man who was born blind, and his disciples asked if the man or his parents were the reason that his man was born blind? Jesus answered, “Neither, this happened so that the works of God might be displayed.” Religious sees you as ordinary people and must depend on them, but God sees us not ordinary but royalty.

The stories in the Bible signify, that certain people in the Bible are above the rest and the rest are neglected. God chooses ordinary people like you and me. 

Jesus was crucified between two criminals who were not baptized, did not go to the temple or bring offerings, memorize the law of Moses. One of them mocked Jesus. The other said, “We are here because we committed crime and deserve punishment, but you did not deserve this. Remember me.” Jesus said, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” He became chosen because of his attitude.

“Chosen” is the attitude when God calls us. 

Ephesians 1:4 - “Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be Holy and without fault in his eyes.”

We are chosen by God, when we respond is how Faith works. Believe in your heart, confess by your mouth Jesus is Lord. Then you will be saved.

Matthew 22:14 - “For many are called, but few are chosen.”

Jesus invites everyone, but not everyone comes. We are chosen by responding to God’s call. Some day we are all going to die, make sure you know where you are going. Make sure it’s a better place not worst. If God is for us, who can be against us. He who did not spare his only son, but gave Him up for us, how He will graciously give us all things. Jesus died for us and rose on the third day and is sitting in the right hand of God and is interseeding for us.