SPECIAL DAY: Boy Scout Sunday

February 1, 1998 - LESSON: Ephesians 1:3-4, NRSV

SERMON TITLE: The Chosen

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INTRODUCTION:

Do YOU remember what it was like for a group of children to choose sides for a game?

You do remember, don't you.

I remember what it was like when the neighborhoods got together at the local ball field to pick up for a baseball game.

Two captains, two best players

Captains tossed bat

Winner had first choice

Each chose in turn

If you were friends with the captain you were immediately chosen.

If you were skilled you were soon chosen.

If you were unskilled you were chosen last.

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MAIN BODY

We are chosen in different ways.

We are all too familiar with the draft.

Join a social club and wait while the members vote on your membership.

Dropping marbles into a container.

Three black ones and your excluded.

Perhaps it was simply being voted in with the majority ruling.

In all these experiences we lived with a level of apprehension and anxiety.

How would you like to eliminate the anxiety so you could live with great confidence and hope.

You would be able to deal very positively with the selection process.

To deal positively no matter what happens.

I have told you a bit of my own personal philosophy.

"If they want you, they'll vote for you; if they don't they won't."

That is not a jaundiced or cynical viewpoint, but it recognizes the ambiguities of the selection process.

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There is a different process with God of which Paul speaks in Ephesians 1:3 & 4.

Last week we explored the 3^rd verse

"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,"

Verse 4 continues

"just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world"

Some people are deeply concerned and very worried about this selection process.

It is much more serious than being selected in a pick-up ball game.

How does God choose?

Will I be chosen?

Does God's choice eliminate our ability to choose?

How does Jesus choose?

It is the case that Jesus' choices reflect the ways in which God chooses.

We turn to Jesus to seek understanding.

Jesus does not use coercion.

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To force to act or think in a given manner.

To compel by pressure or threat.

This is the stuff of blackmail or distorted boycotts.

International Bible Society owns the copyright to the New International Version of the Bible.

They produced an Inclusive NIV.

There were no real major changes.

They simply wanted places where the Bible referred to men and women to reflect that thought.

There were some significant religious organizations who told the IBS that they would stop purchasing their bibles and selling them to their clientele if they continued to print and sell this Bible.

So you can't buy it in the US, but you can in the UK.

Right now most of the Southern Baptists and some other religious groups are boycotting Disney.

They want to pressure Disney into conforming to their concept of what Disney ought to be.

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You do not have to watch or listen or attend programs and parks sponsored by Disney.

Judas thought to pressure Jesus, to coerce him into doing what Judas thought the Messiah was supposed to do.

Jesus did not give into the pressure.

He fulfilled his destiny by dying on the cross.

Jesus will not use force.

He attempts to convince us that the exercise of force is contrary to the principles of God's government.

We exercise force to make people conform.

Saddam Hussein is not cooperating with the UN Inspectors searching for weapons of mass destruction.

We are threatening military action and seeking support from our allies.

It is a temporary solution to an intractable problem.

Peter tried one day to use force to protect Jesus.

All he did was cut off the ear of the High Priest's servant.

Jesus told Peter to put away his sword.

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Those who live by the sword, will die by the sword.

Jesus told a story of a great banquet to help us understand how God chooses.

It is on the corner of the wall outside the entrance.

The invited guests could not come to the feast, they offered their excuses.

So the king sent his servants out to compel people to come in.

Compel, that is coercion or force: NO!

It is an invitation that is given in love.

(Romans 12:21, NRSV) "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."

A wealthy young woman's marriage plans went awry.

The groom never showed up.

The very expensive reception was to be in one of New York's finest hotels.

It had already been paid for.

There were no refunds.

It was either eat and drink and dance or throw it all away.

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The young woman sent her friends out into the streets to invite the homeless to her no longer wedding reception.

They dined on Chicken Cordon Bleu, drank Champaign and danced to a great orchestra.

There was no trouble getting guests for the reception.

God has no problem getting guests for the feast.

(Luke 14:21-23 NRSV) So the slave returned and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, 'Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.' [22] And the slave said, 'Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room." [23] Then the master said to the slave, 'Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled.

CONCLUSION:

This great story also provides us with the information which helps us to know how God chooses.

God does not choose individuals, but classes.

There are two classes.

Those who accept the invitation and those who do not.

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We accept.

God is only confirming our decision.

God does not choose individuals, but classes.

There are two classes.

Those who are willing to cooperate with God and those who are will not.

We accept

God is only confirming our decision.

God has extended the invitation to those who choose to be a particular kind of individual.

God has chosen us to be holy and blameless before him in love.

To be like him.

To work with God so that the divine image might be, to one degree or another, depending on our abilities and capabilities, reproduced in us.

And he makes all this possible.

To be blameless, faultless.

To be without stain or blemish.

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This describes the condition of the sacrifices that were to be offered by the Hebrews in their temple services.

It means to live in a state of constant forgiveness for the sins we commit.

This is marvelous.

It is no wonder that we can proclaim.

(Ephesians 1:3-4 NRSV) 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, [4] just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.

In the times of my life I have found myself faced with some difficult decisions or threatening situations.

I have been fired, more than once.

I have quit a job or two.

Each time There was no despair or anxiety.

I believed that there was a place and/or a position for me.

It was up to me to find it and to work at it.

It may not have been the most glamorous of jobs, but it put food on the table and paid the bills.

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My confidence arose from two sources.

I believed that God would keep his promises.

My relationship with Christ provided a source of hope and confidence.

At the same time I have a willing spirit and a willingness to work.

In these circumstances one will always succeed.

Every position is temporary, for in the end we are called to God, and that calling is more important than anything else.

This is what it means to be chosen.

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