756 God Chose Us - Ephesians 1:4-5

Do you ever catch yourself thinking that you have God figured out? Hi, I'm Mike Henry Sr. With Follower of One. Thanks for joining me again today on the Follower of One Podcast.

Today, I want to pick up where we left off in the previous episode. We're in Ephesians chapter one. This is a great passage about thinking about God and the blessings that he provides, but it also brings us to some challenging passages  and some potentially controversial topics.

And so today we're reading verses four and five from chapter one of Ephesians. And I'm reading from the New American Standard simply because it's most familiar to me. "Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will."

We're learning about God a little bit through Paul in this passage. I skipped verse three, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ." Paul is celebrating our salvation, our relationship to God and how wonderful God is, who saved us.

And then he goes into this description of these cool things about God. "He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world." Predestination, which is a word used in the next verse is a somewhat touchy topic in Christian circles, because it's actually two parts of what we have to do. There's this predestination of God, but also there's still the need for us to believe. And we'll talk about that, when we get to verse 13 of this section.

We're just examining the magnitude and the massiveness of God in our relationship with him. And Paul is celebrating here because these things are true. "God chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him in love."

God decided that you would follow him. I don't understand how that is. I don't understand how we still have free will, how it's up to us to choose Christ, to believe in him. I don't understand how both those things seem to be true at the same time. But I can trust that what these passages say about God are true. "He predestined us to adoption as sons." He has made arrangement for us and he will go on in the next verses. And I will talk about those  in subsequent episodes. He's gone on to bless us wonderfully. But simply choosing us is our point for today. God chose you. If you're following Jesus Christ, God chose you.

He was not surprised by this fact. He planned it and therefore he has a job for us. He created us for our purpose. It says in Ephesians 2:10  "we were created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we would walk in them." Even the works that we've been called to do have been chosen. Our time and our place have been chosen.

God is driving, not us. He's in charge. And this even lines up with other passages that say the same things like Romans 8:28-30, say similar things that God chose us.

What difference does this make? God is God and I'm not. And today I don't need to know everything. I want to remember that he's in charge and that I report to him.

And that's why I know that part of my calling is to make disciples, according to Matthew 28:18-20. Jesus gave me a job to do my status isn't in question. The only question is will I grow up in Christ and live following him.

And so today I want to challenge us as marketplace Christians. We've been chosen. Let's step into the role that we've been given and experience the joy and the blessing that God has for us. We'll talk more about the blessings that God has provided for us as a result of this choice in the next episode. But today let's remember that we can punch in. "God, here I am. I want to do what you have for me to do today." And God will put you to work in the lives of the people within your sphere of influence.

Thank you for being a marketplace minister and thank you for considering how your faith can make a difference in your everyday life. What we do because we follow Jesus matters. Thanks very much for being a minister in your marketplace.