Chosen by God

What is the mission of this church?  If you can’t answer that question you’re not alone.  The reason we exist as a local body is to glorify Jesus, to teach and preach the truth of the Scriptures and to do our part in fulfilling the Great Commission.  This is the reason any local body of believers such exist.  However, this is not the mission.  Sounds contradictory, doesn’t it?  The mission of a local body is the driving force for which that body exists.  In other words, the mission of a local body is the activity to be carried out.

So what is our activity to be carried out?  To glorify Jesus, to teach and preach, to fellowship, the answer is yes to all of these, but this is the same for all churches. 

The Lord has been dealing with me about this since the end of December.  I have gone to the Governing Board and posed this same question to them.  “What is our mission?”  Therefore, until the board comes together again for further discussion, I would like to, unofficially, give you the mission that I believe God show me for myself and maybe for this church. 

“Our mission is to turn ordinary people into passionate Christians.”

Why are we not passionate in our beliefs?  Why can we be passionate about everything else?  We are passionate about spouses, children, family, baseball, softball, fishing, business, etc. but not about the Lord and not about our Christian life.

I am excited about this series.  Like I said, God has been dealing with me about this for a while now.  I know, by experience, we can go through the motions without a passion.  It is passion that drives us, without that passion it is so easy to go through the motions and then move away from God without even realizing it.  Therefore, this series is probably the most important series I’ve done to date.  Why, because as Christians in the United States, we’ve lost our passion for God, Jesus and the Christian life.  What is passion?  Passion is “intense, uncritical devotion.”  Where is your passion?

So with all of that said, let’s get to the message for today.

To begin to regain that passion, we need to see what God has done for us.  Then we need to begin to consciously regain that passion.

We don’t need a convenient, compact god.  We need One who causes us to fall upon our knees, who leaves us speechless, who makes our eyes shine with His fire and causes us to depart as changed persons.  And we need that God every moment of every day.  David Jeremiah, My Heart’s Desire, p. 18

And without a passion we will not experience a life change.

In this passage we will begin looking at God and our role in His plan.  We are special to Him.

First, He calls us a:

I.                    Special Treasure (6 & John 15:16)

A.                Status (Holy People)

B.                 Position (Special Treasure)

C.                 Function (Bear Fruit)

Second, He chose us by a:

II.                 Special Love (7-8)

Illustration—Sermon text, purpose and response in Ecuador

A.                Not Because of Who You Were

B.                 But Because of His Love

Third, He gives:

III.               Special Treatment (9-10)

A.                For His Obedient Children

1.                  Faithfulness

2.                  Mercy

B.                 For His Rebellious Children

Any generation of God’s people who have a pattern in their lives to do what is right in their own eyes have lost the truth that they are a corporate and covenant people of God.  Henry Blackaby, Lessons from the Life of Samuel, p. 8

Application (11):

1.                  Keep the Commandments

2.                  Keep the Statutes

3.                  Keep the Judgments

4.                  Observe Them

When you start to listen to God, you will hear Him tell you that He is about to do the impossible.  When you obey Him, you will experience what He said He will do. Henry & Tom Blackaby, The Man God Uses, p. 45