You Are Called
Chosen • Sermon • Submitted
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What does it mean to be CHOSEN?
What does it mean to be CHOSEN?
Today we begin an 8 week series that accompanies our 8 week small group series on the Chosen video series which goes through the life of Jesus.
We aren’t preaching through the episodes in the series, but instead the biblical themes wrapped up in the episodes.
We are going to be asking the question throughout this series “What does it mean to be Chosen?”
First off, it mean “You are Called”
Names are Important
Names are Important
As you came in today you were given a name tag like this one.
You would typically write your first name on that so that the people around you would know who you are.
Our names are a powerful thing aren’t they?
Dale Carnegie taught that knowing someone’s name was key to be an influential person.
He said “A person’s name is to that person, the sweetest, most important sound in any language.”
Our identity is wrapped up in our name, even if we someone else has the same name, I am Jeremy Robinson, there is only one of me.
Though our names are important, it is not the only way we identify ourselves.
What else would you write on that name tag in order for other people to know you more?
We are fathers, mothers, sons, daughter, husbands, and wives.
We are students, teachers, supervisors, employees, and owners.
We are old, young, chunky and skinny, short and tall, and all the in-betweens.
And in all those descriptors we find our value and worth.
I can remember my 8th grade year trying out for the basketball team.
It was a week long process for a couple of hours after school.
After the first 2 days, the coaches would call the names of those who would continue the next day.
I made it through to day 3 and then I made it to day 4.
Day 5 would have been the last day, the team would be chosen that day.
But on Day 4 I never heard my name.
I wasn’t good enough to be chosen.
Maybe it was my shooting skills, my dribbling skills, my hustle, my confidence, or something else entirely, but I didn’t have what it took in the coach’s eye for him to call my name, to choose me.
There are some circumstances in life when we don’t want our names chosen: like layoffs, jury duty, or the dreaded “Daddy I am finished in the bathroom, can you help?”
But there are many areas of life when we very much desire to hear our names, to be chosen.
The most important of which is for God to call our names, to choose us to be His.
But what is it about us that would prompt God to calls us, to choose us, to save us?
I want to look at Romans 5:6-11 this morning and see 4 realities about each and every one of us that we must understand if we are to understand What it means to be CHOSEN.
1) You are HELPLESSLY SINFUL.
1) You are HELPLESSLY SINFUL.
6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. 8 But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
There are 4 common reason we give for why God would choose us:
We are RELIGIOUS
“I was raised in church and baptized. I don’t drink, don’t cuss; I give, I serve, and I do all the things good Christians are supposed to do.”
God desires obedience, holiness, and discipline, but not to earn our salvation.
We are SUCCESSFUL/BLESSED/REWARDED
For some of us, the wealth and success we have in life is the source of our hope and security.
For others it is the evidence that God must really be happy with us because look how He has rewarded us.
We have this belief that our success will satisfy, us and, maybe even God.
We are HARD WORKERS
We often equate being busy with being Godly.
We work hard at our jobs, keep busy with our families, get involved in the things at church, help out in the community, and are exhausted in all our efforts to feel like we have done enough to matter.
There is this imbedded belief that God is going to be impressed with our hard work.
In each case we have misunderstood our biggest dilemma…WE ARE HELPLESSLY SINFUL.
There are three adjectives Paul uses in these 3 verses (actually just in 6 and 8).
Helpless- literally meaning powerless or without the ability to do so oneself. Weak
Ungodly- one who actively practices the opposite of worship and reverence to God. Wicked.
Sinners- one who acts in opposition to God and His ways. Rebellious
This is a restatement really of what Paul has already argued in the previous chapters.
10 as it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one. 11 There is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away; all alike have become worthless. There is no one who does what is good, not even one.
23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;
Paul is saying we are hopelessly weak, wicked, rebellious people, everyone of us.
We can’t prove ourselves through religion.
We can’t improve ourselves through worldly success or wealth.
We can’t fix ourselves by hard work.
Christ didn’t die for sinners because he detected in them an inclination toward God or (v. 10) a desire to end the enmity toward God. He died to overcome the enmity and hostility of the ungodly toward God. — Thomas R. Schreiner.
Our only hope is to understand that we are hopeless, helpless, wicked, and rebellious.
But that “AT THE RIGHT TIME”
That is, at the time of greatest need, when nothing but his death would help. Christ died for helpless, ungodly, sinners like you and me.
2) You are RADICALLY LOVED.
2) You are RADICALLY LOVED.
7 For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. 8 But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Who would you be willing to die for?
That is a challenging question to answer in some ways isn’t it?
There are the obvious people, kids, spouse, very close friends even.
If you were a secret service agent you would risk your life for the president.
But what about a random person on the street?
What about a criminal?
What about someone who hurt or killed someone you loved?
God’s love is radical in that it is so outside of what we humans could ever imagine or fathom.
Douglas Moo says, “Sending his Son to die for people who refused to worship him
reveals the magnitude of God’s love for us. The awesome quality of God’s love for us is seen in that Christ died for us while we were “still sinners”—hating God, in rebellion against him.”
Hear this today
God’s love for you is not based on how good you have been following all the religious duties.
His love isn’t based on how successful you are in life.
And it isn’t based on how busy you are or how hard you are working.
God doesn’t require us to get our lives in fixed up and our sins in order before He will call us.
He calls sinners IN THE MIDDLE OF THEIR SIN to come and follow Him.
God’s love is RADICALLY and it is offer to WHOMEVER will receive it.
And if you have truly received it, then may we all live in the sufficiency of His sacrifice.
3) You are SUFFICIENTLY SAVED.
3) You are SUFFICIENTLY SAVED.
9 How much more then, since we have now been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from wrath. 10 For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. 11 And not only that, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation.
Not only are we helpless in fixing our rebellious hearts and our ungodly natures, we are also unable to keep ourselves in Christ to the end.
“How much more...” is used twice with this meaning.
Bringing rebellious sinners into relationship with God is an act of amazing love (vv. 5–8). Now that he has done that, Paul suggests, we can be absolutely confident he will do what, in this sense, is the “easier” thing: deliver from wrath people whom God has already brought to himself. — Douglas Moo
Christian brothers and sisters, live in this security that Christ has secured for us.
You aren’t ever going to be religious enough.
You will never gain or accomplish enough to satisfy you needy heart.
You cannot work hard enough to feel justified.
You cannot add anything to the word that Jesus has accomplished
But we can boast.
We can boast with our words of praise and our attitudes of worship.
We can boast with our lives of obedience, mercy, and grace.
Our aim in following Jesus isn't to KEEP His love, but to live TRANSFORMED by His love.
4) You are CALLED BY NAME.
4) You are CALLED BY NAME.
1 Now this is what the Lord says— the one who created you, Jacob, and the one who formed you, Israel— “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are mine.
He knows your name.
Not because you are religious enough
Not because you are successful, wealthy or connected.
Not because you have worked hard enough.
Not because you messed up and broken beyond repair.
He knows your name because
He created you
He formed you
and, by the blood of Jesus, He will redeem you.
Is he calling your name today?
So write your name on that name tag, but underneath it you can also write:
Forgiven, redeemed, reconciled, saved, set free
Or just simply
LOVED
LOVED