Chosen | Jennifer Toledo | Expression58

well today we are launching a new series for the next couple weeks six weeks or so um and we're going to be looking at the book of ephesians together and i'm excited i love the book of ephesians um we're going to be just jumping in every week looking at a different chapter so if you kind of want to spend the next couple weeks just reading ephesians diving into it we're going to be talking about it every week um but i'm going to give you a little context of the book of ephesians and then we're going to jump into chapter one but ephesians is a a handwritten letter from the apostle paul to the church in ephesus it was written from prison and it was written somewhere between like 60 62 a.d and it's this a letter of encouragement to the church in ephesus and it's a um it's such a powerful such a powerful book um there's so much in it and paul has you know this really great relationship with the church in ephesus and kind of like in paul's ministry there there was constantly either a riot or revival taking place and um so there's this rich history and ephesus the city that's receiving this letter that we're going to get into was a really unique city it was a unique um a unique region because first of all it's a very urban area it was a port city and so there was a lot of trade and traffic and and um just a very significant and influential city of its day and in fact some regard as one of the most influential of its day of that region um it also was ephesus was also where there was you know kind of the headquarters of pagan worship there was a a giant um [Music] well it was really just centralized a lot of the pagan worship um there and um you know there was a big famous you know pagan temple dedicated to the greek goddess and that kind of stuff um and so it was really significant it was a key place for evangelism um the church the community um and the people of ephesus were very much seen as like movers and shakers there were people who got things done they were um powerful powerful people and um and so i love this book and this message that that paul is writing to the church in ephesus because it's full of themes like identity of authority um understanding who we are it's it's it's both like faith and practice like you know how we walk out powerful living um it's it's an incredible book it's you know maturity and how to live victoriously all of that and so i'm excited to jump into these things together but something that's also also interesting um just for some context before we jump into this is in revelations you might remember where the lord writes a letter to the various churches the various regions and um you know and it's this um encouragement for what they're doing right and challenged for the areas where they've kind of missed it and there is a particular um you know section where um the lord the angel of the lord is speaking to the church in ephesus and so it's interesting because there's some really positive things about the church but then there was also one really serious warning so i'm going to actually start there revelations 2 2-7 we have it on the screen it says um i know all that you this is from the lord to the to the church in ephesus i know all that you've done for me you have worked hard and persevered i know that you don't tolerate evil you have tested those who claim to be apostles and prove that they're not for they were impostors i also know how you bravely endured trials and persecutions because of my name yet you have not become discouraged but i have this against you you've abandoned the passionate love you had for me at the beginning think about how far you've fallen repent and do the works of love you did it first i will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place of influence if you do not repent although to your credit you despise the practice practices of the nicolasians which i also despise the one whose heart is open let him listen carefully to what the spirit is saying now to all the churches to the one who overcomes i will give access to feast on the fruit of the trees of life that is found in the paradise of god so what's interesting is the church in ephesus you know they weren't just an active church they were known for their labor they were known for for just their their toil they were excellent they were excellent they were producers they got stuff done and when you hear this that you know when you kind of dig into this they took a big stand for justice they took a big stand for righteousness and they were persecuted for it they stood up to what others culturally were okay with the church in ephesus was like no right and even that passage where it talks about the um nicolasians you guys know who they are totally right y'all remember the nicolasians just kidding um and so apparently the nicolasians were a group who followed a guy by the name of of nicholas shocker and um they were people who believed in god professed faith but they had mixture and nicolasians were actually known as a conquering people which is interesting they mixed faith with a lust for power they mixed faith with political power interesting and god says to your credit you despise the practices of these folks as i do right so the church in ephesus they're powerful they're dreamers they're influencers they're movers and shakers they're people of justice um but then and they're this influential city and all of this right but then the one thing the lord challenges them is he says you've done all this great stuff be careful though that you don't lose your first love be careful though that you don't get so busy and so caught up everybody and you know in ephesus all the church was doing great things for god but be careful in the midst of being excellent doing all these things you don't forget your first love because you'll lose it all interesting to me because when i was reading a lot of this i was like huh ephesus feels a little like l.a just a dad interesting interesting and so i'm excited for us to dive into this passage together because this letter from paul to the church i think is going to really bless us and encourage us and strengthen us in our own journey in our own region and our own pursuit um as we dive into some of these these concepts and my prayer is that we would we would grow in our our identity and our authority but more than anything that through this that our first love would be rekindled and that we would be so passionately in love with jesus more than anything else that love would not go crawl because cold because you can do all the right things and be doing all the great things and have really good theology and be living right but if your heart is not awakened in love what's the point right and so that's my prayer for us um as we kind of embark on this journey all right well we're gonna just jump in and read a whole chunk of scripture y'all ready you can handle it right one person one person can handle it all right well the rest of you hang on ephesians chapter 1 paul an apostle of christ jesus by the will of god to god's holy people in ephesus the faithful in in christ jesus grace and peace to you again right i love that grace and peace to you from god our father and the lord jesus christ praise be to the lord that praise be to the god and father of our lord jesus christ who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in christ for he chose us can we just say chose together for he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight in love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through jesus christ in accordance with his pleasure and will to the praise of his glorious grace which he has freely given us in the one he loves in him we have redemption you have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of god's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he purposed in christ to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under christ verse 11 in him we were also chosen say it again say chosen in him we were also chosen having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will in order that we who were the first to put our hope in christ might be for the praise of his glory and you also were included in christ when you heard the message of truth the gospel of your salvation when you believed and were marked in him with a seal the promised holy spirit who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance and to the redemption of those who are god's possession to the praise of his glory for this reason ever since i heard about your faith in the lord jesus and your love for all of god's people i've not stopped giving thanks for you remembering you in my prayers i keep asking that the god of our lord jesus christ the glorious father may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know him better i pray that the eyes of your heart might be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he's called you the riches of his glory inheritance in his holy people and his incomparably great power for us who believe that power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms far above all rule and authority power and dominion in every name that is invoked not only in the present age but also in the one to come and god placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church which is his body the fullness of him who fulfills everything in every way that's good that is good we're going to dive into that before we do i want to tell you a story um when hone and i were dating um we you know for me i was really wrestling with is this the one right is this the one god i don't know like is this the one and um because of my own um fears i didn't want to get it wrong i was like you know i came from a broken family i was just like i don't want to get this wrong i don't i don't know that if i trust i don't know if i can trust my own judgment this is way too heavy to like get wrong and so i was like god i just need you to tell me actually i'm just gonna need you to command me to marry him if he's the one that's exactly what i told the lord just command me to marry him like just tell me marry him and that way i'll just know it's you done like write it in the sky like just tell me to marry him and god was like you offend me he did i was like no i need you to just tell me right because when it you know when it gets hard i want to be able to go this man you made me marry no um i was like god i need you to just command me to marry him and god is like you know begin to break down to me why that was so offensive to him and he began to tell me i'm the god of choice because i'm a god of love and i would not be a god of love if i didn't value choice and he began to challenge me and say hey i think it's a good it's a good option for you but this has to be your choice you have to make the choice if you're going to love this person for the rest of your life this is your choice right and um and it was like that's like you know a weighty choice you know but it was so freeing to make that choice but i understood something that day about god that i had wrestled to understand before and it's this power of choice it's this power of of without choice real choice free choice there's there cannot be real love right and or real freedom and so i love that this whole chapter this whole you know chapter one of ephesians is all about choice and it's all about the fact that you are chosen you are chosen and that's actually the title of my sermon today is chosen the word chosen means object of choice or receiver of divine favor i love what is said here because it says that we were chosen not just before we were born but before the earth was created you were chosen by god to be adopted into his family before the earth was created before you could try to impress him before you could try to show him how cute and adorable and wonderful you are before you could sin and make a mess before you could do anything he chose you like chose you adopted you brought you near i love in verse 5 it says in love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through jesus christ in accordance with his pleasure and will because of his love for you you were predestined preordained we'll get to that word in a minute if you're like oh god here we go we'll get to that in a minute but i want you to i want you to to think about this concept that you that there has not been a day of your life not a moment not a second of your life where you were not loved wanted dreamed of planned for provided for thought of passionately desired covered looked after or belonging there wasn't a second of your life where you didn't belong it's powerful we're chosen in god you have been destined from before the creation of the world to be adopted as his wanted in his family it brings him great pleasure right before we could make mistakes he chose us because it's not about us it's about him it's not about our nature it's not about something we've done or maybe we'll do for him one day is why he chooses us no he chooses us because he is love right and if it's not dependent on you you can't lose the choice because you didn't earn it you can't lose it because it wasn't root you didn't get it because of your behavior therefore you can't lose it because of your behavior he chooses you from the beginning of time you have been in the heart of god he has dreamed about bringing you into his family and walking closely with you you were designed and created with great intention and purpose and love it's who he is he is love he is family he is acceptance right he is inclusive he is loyal he is relational he is infinitely kind and good this is who he is and that is why he made you his only thoughts towards you have always been love and that you belong and that you're wanted and that you're chosen for great things that's powerful you are his will you are his pleasure destined to belong i want to tell um a quick story or a more of an experience some of you guys have heard me share this before um but uh when i was in college um if you know me some of you know my testimony i grew up in a christian home i had an encounter with jesus when i was two years old and i loved him ever since then and um in college i'd had this experience where i was i was praying and i was actually complaining to the lord and telling the lord like oh yeah my testimony is like so lame like oh like i wanted like some crazy story you know it was like lost as could be and jesus showed up and you know and i wanted some wild testimony and i'm like i actually don't remember a day that i didn't know you as if that's not amazing right but um i was complaining and i was in this place of prayer and i just thought the lord said i want to show you how i see your story and i began to have a vision i don't really know how to explain it it didn't see it in front of me but it was like in the my mind's eye right in the image center and my spirit as i just was there with my eyes we've been to see this whole thing kind of play out and i saw this picture and it looked like um me as a little girl and everything was in black and white and um i was chained with like millions and millions of people right and it was like obvious that we were slaves or something and we were all just like walking it was this horrific gruesome scene like just so sad like we were all walking and it was like i knew we were walking towards our death and um all these people just sad walking i was this little you know saw myself as a child and um as we were walking we passed by this beautiful castle and my heart just began to leap i don't i didn't know what was behind those walls but the castle was actually in color and it was just like i didn't know but i was so drawn and then out of the castle doors steps um this man which now i know after this experience was jesus and he was just so kind i just was so drunk he just felt so safe and kind and loving and i just wanted to be near him and i remember this in this picture like my heart pounding like i want to be near him i want to be by him and you know it was like how will he ever see me i'm in this ocean of people how will he ever see me how will he ever find me i'm just this little tiny kid in this ocean of people and then jesus just began to walk through the crowd and he kind of was getting closer and closer towards me and i was like could it be no there's no way and he got closer and closer and he came right up to where i was and he got on his knees and he looked me right in the eyes and he said you i choose you i want to be your daddy do you want to be my little girl in this experience i was like yes you know i knew i was like an orphan and a slave i don't know it was all the drama i love how god speaks to us in ways that we need to hear it okay so guys some of you men are like wow that is definitely the female version of how god would speak to me but whatever listen okay he speaks to me in a way i understand and um and in this experience he breaks the chains off of me and takes me into the palace into the the kingdom and it's just i was so in this experience i just couldn't stop taking in everything looked different smelled different felt different it was so different it was so colorful and vibrant and and just was so wildly different in there and i i wanted everything i was like i just i want this world and and i remember being taken in and you know these servants took me off and bathed me and and brought me back out and this beautiful dress and i was standing before the king and he said um there's something we need to get clear today and he he gets on his knees again he looks me in the eyes and he says today i'm adopting you not kind of adopting you totally adopting you as my own because of that you're no longer allowed to think like a slave or talk like an orphan or act like a slave in an orphan that's not who you are you are royalty you belong with me and you belong here and he said put out your hand and in this experience i put out my hand and he put a key in my hand and instantly it was one of those things where i don't know how to explain other than instantly i knew that the key represented faith because what i'd seen when i walked in was hallway after hallway like endless hallways and each hallway had endless doors on both sides and i just somehow knew that behind every door was like a world of its own it's like all the creativity you could ever need is in heaven right now right all the wisdom you could ever need is in heaven right now it's in god it's in the kingdom all the peace you could ever need god does not lack anything right it's all there healing everything is there and i was like oh my goodness and i understood in that moment by faith if i used that key of faith i could open up every single door in the kingdom i lacked nothing but it required faith right have you noticed when you read the bible and you hear a promise you're like that sounds great but just doesn't magically appear in your life you have to activate it by faith right and so in this experience you know i just of course began to weep and i was just like that's beautiful and god's like this is your story this is how i see your testimony and i wanted to share that because that's all of our story that's exactly what ephesians 1 is telling us this is our story we have been chosen we have been adopted we have been brought into a whole new kingdom and given access to everything we are loved we are wanted and we get to learn how to not live like orphans and slaves anymore because that's not who we are john 17 23 jesus is praying for us and he says you live fully and he's praying to the father you live fully in me and now i live fully in them so that they may experience will experience perfect unity and the world will be convinced that you have sent me for they will see that you love each one of them listen to this with the same passionate love that you have for me do you believe god loves jesus the father loves the son two people y'all we got to do better than that do we believe father god loves the son okay what does this tell us you love them with the exact same passionate love that you love me jesus is praying this jesus is saying guys the same way that the father loves me is the same way that he loves you that's pretty wild that's pretty wild love right think about those implications in your own life in fact his son was punished on our behalf and we got his reward on his behalf god knows us he sees us he loves us he chooses us over and over again and you whether you run from it or not are marked and set apart for god you always have been so i want to go back to that word predestined for a minute we're going to totally solve this this morning just kidding um you know the best scholars and minds and theologians have wrestled through this concept you know forever um and here's what we know we know we don't agree okay that's what we know in general the church at large um but i want to talk about this for a moment um because some in some traditions or you know schools of thought would define this idea that we've been predestined would define this as like irresistible grace like it's a done deal it's decided in eternity it doesn't matter what you do or don't do what's going to happen is going to happen that's how it is right um some would would say that god chooses some people to go to heaven and god chooses some people to go to hell and that he chooses it it is what it is i actually reject that that thinking um totally um you can argue with me if you want in your head not to me but um because i'm too tired okay um um i i don't believe jesus only died for the elect right he died for everybody you know for god so loved the world that he gave his son right yes god knows of course the future and who will or whatever but that doesn't change his posture his posture is 100 towards every human right his posture is in pursuit towards every human um you know romans five six you know six and eight if you know this you see at just the right time when we were still powerless christ died for the ungodly very rarely will anybody die for a righteous person though for a good person somebody maybe will die for them but god demonstrates his own love for us while we were still sinners christ died for us he died for sinners he died for the ungodly he died for those who hadn't received him right and so um you know in the wrestle through this doctrine of election or predestination here's my only warning to you and this i think it's really easy in any kind of biblical concept is to jump on a bandwagon you know of extremes and yet so many spiritual truths are just found in the middle tensions right so it's this concept of predestination yet free will and and those things are tensions that hold each other um you know i heard somebody say how do you know that you were chosen by god well believe in jesus and you'll prove that you were we have a role to play our choice will we choose him t.l moody says the whosoever wills are the elect the whosoever won'ts are the non-elects or god wants all to believe god chooses all god loves all god dreams for all god predestines every person to be saved but the devil also predestines every person to be damned and you have the deciding vote like it's god's heart towards everybody to be saved everybody but you also have free will and free will is powerful and we also have the power to choose so we're chosen we're chosen by god but for what you know not just so that one day we go to heaven you know fire insurance so much bigger than that it's that we can live powerfully on this side of eternity as sons as daughters you were chosen not just to theologically check a box but to to walk with him to experience him to be transformed by him to experience his love it says he brought us into family he didn't bring you into his corporation to do stuff for him he brought you into his family right he brought you into relationship to live near him powerfully to experience him to be loved by him to be wrapped in him secure in him it's not about our doing it's about our being and once we truly understand who we are as sons and daughters of god powerful doing just will naturally flow out of our life you see when we really understand that we're chosen by god it changes everything it stops the wrestle inside of us you know um recently i was i was having this um i don't know i just started feeling had something going on i was like why do i feel i feel weird like what's happening and i kind of got alone with the lord and he just began to talk to me about how there was this place in me um well actually i found myself saying i don't belong i don't belong and that's kind of you know in a lot of ways felt a little bit like a theme in my life um i'm not going to go into a lot of my story but um being multicultural having growing up in a being first generation mexican immigrant and then my my father's caucasian and then growing up in a predominantly mexican community um it was hard because i had i was half white so i didn't fully fit in with my mexican friends i was you know culturally much more mexican so i didn't really fit in with my white friends i'm nothing like kona always laughs like how did you come out of your family i am nothing like anybody in my family on either my family is amazing but i'm personality look nothing i look nothing i'm strange i'm like i don't know where i came from um so kind of always this sense of like odd one out right and um grew up in a really small town definite odd one out i was like i'm out of here i don't want to be here i don't think like you guys think i you know never felt like i belonged and then um you know god called me as a woman into ministry cool it is cool but in terms of belonging y'all better know who called you right women when you're called to ministry because there's not a seat at the table many times for women in ministry and um so it's one of those things where it's like okay and and then as a person who who's passionately feels called um to to justice and god's heart for justice in a culture and climate where for whatever reason chris you know many people associate justice with politics versus the gospel and so you know even more of like you don't belong you know and so just kind of feeling like wow in a lot of these places kind of just this wrestle of do i belong and um and one day the lord began to speak to me and just encourage me and and challenge me and he said i want you to stop looking for a friend group or a a group that you belong in that's all great but that's not where you belong you've always and only belonged with me you belong with me you come from me you're coming back to me i am your family you belong with me it's my kingdom where you really where we really get rooted in our belonging right and when we when we really settle into that of course we're called to community and connect and all those things and that's beautiful but we're not showing up hoping to satisfy something because it's already been satisfied in god so at the end of the day it doesn't matter if you love me or reject me i might be sad about it but it doesn't matter because it's not going to shake who i am because i know that i'm chosen and i know that i belong right i know where i belong and so i think this is so powerful we really begin to understand what it means that we're chosen and that we belong because here's the reality the world would love to just try to lure us into right getting acceptance belonging fitting in whatever it is but that i mean if you've been alive for more than a decade or a minute you realize those things change like the wind right it's constantly changing the second you learn how to do your hair right it changes anybody you all might be too young for this anybody remember like the wave up and then the wave down an aquanet no you didn't grow up in a toilet neighborhood harmony you know though you know the wave yeah she did the wave yeah she knows it i mean the second right it's like culture and things shift all the time but really understanding you know that i don't i don't draw my identity from those things but when you really understand that you are chosen and that you are loved and there is purpose and destiny on your life how can you live normal again and some of us maybe because we're weary or because we've just been a little bit beat up in this season living normal flying under the radar sounds really nice to you but let me tell you you will be sorely disappointed because you are not created to live like everybody else you can't escape it friend you are chosen you are marked by god you are loved you have great purpose and destiny in your life you know i think about peter i love simon peter i relate to him a lot um you know but not only were we we chosen you know chosen into god's family but we were chosen for a great purpose on this earth now remember this right scripture tells us in the psalms that while we were yet in our mother's womb that god ordained every every day ordained for us was written in his book right that god has written an incredible story about your life things he's dreaming about wanting to do through you things that only you can do because of your makeup your personality where you grew up the experiences you've had the way he's wired you there are things on this planet only you can do there are books only you can write there are conversations only you can really have with certain people there are songs and sounds that can only come from you you are uniquely wired to do great things on this earth and i've said this before but the god of the universe who created everything did not write some lame boring story for your life it's impossible he's good right he's wildly creative so when you think about that um that god has an incredible purpose for us this is where choice comes in as well because he wants to use us and he's choosing to use this he's choosing to partner with us he's choosing you for great things but is our choice engaged you know and peter in his life if you remember he's he's fishing and jesus comes along just gets in his boat like what's up just gets in his boat right and he's like push it out a little bit and um begins to preach to the crowd and you have this moment where you have creator collaborating with creation when you think about it it's kind of wild jesus who can who made the water who can walk on the water is asking for peter's boat jesus who could stand on the water doesn't want to do that he wants to get into peter's boat to accomplish something right he wants to partner with us he wanted to use peter's weakness and his passion in his life he wants wanted to do it with peter just like he wants to do it with us right why would the one who can walk on water want to use my boat when god can do everything when god can just show up and reveal himself to people why why should i ever share the gospel we can easily get into this and if we don't understand this power of choice the power of being chosen that god is choosing us the reality is there were two boats on the shore that day right and if peter would have said no i think jesus probably would have gotten in the other boat he doesn't have to use us he wants to use us he wants to partner with us he wants to walk with us if that word use is it feels weird for you god doesn't you guys know what i'm saying like god doesn't want to use you he wants to partner with you collaborate with you when i say use that's what i'm meaning um luke 5 3 says he got into the boat belonging to simon and asked him to put out a little from the shore then he sat down and taught the people i love it says he asked him he asked him will you push out a little bit you want to do this you want to partner together i wonder if god is asking us in this season hey are we still like because you can be a follower of jesus or well let me phrase that you can be a christian you can be a theologically believing and then just kind of be like jesus my boat's parked because i'm tired i'm tired of that faith life you know what i mean anybody relate no you all are too okay um and he's getting in our boats and he's saying will you push out under the deep again want to partner with me for something great you know many of us we look at the things god we have in our life our boats our careers our skills our the things we've built the thing you know the things we've spent a lot of time developing and building and we think it's our hustle and our ability to to pull ourselves up from our bootstraps and we think we're just a craftsman builder and yet we forget who made the trees that we're building our boat with yet we forget who made the ocean we're out here trying to float our boat on yet we forget the one who literally wove every gill into the fish we're out here trying to catch right every good thing comes from him every good thing in your life comes from him even where you're at in your career it comes from him right every good thing comes from him but we have a choice are we going to let him in the boat um and you know the reality is when we do he's a way better partner fishing gets a whole lot easier when the one who made the trees in the ocean and the fish is in your boat fishing's a whole lot easier and you don't have to do it alone and i love that that jesus chooses peter he also knew uh the future he knew who peter you know his weaknesses um if you remember in luke 22 it says simon simon behold satan demanded to have you that he may sift you like wheat but i've prayed for you that your faith may not fail and when you've turned away strengthen your brothers so jesus knew that simon was going to fall and he also knew that simon would come back and yet jesus still chose him in his weakness he knew that he would betray him and jesus says i still choose you i want you i love you i love you despite your weakness how many of us when we look at our weakness we want to hide from god we want to disengage we want to shut down we want to not show up to church we want to you know disengage and jesus is once again telling us my choice and love towards you has nothing to do with your behavior so let me up in your boat life will be better right god can reach the lost without us god can do great things without us but he wants to do it with you do you guys remember the story in acts 8 i forgot about this story for a minute um philip and the ethiopian verse 26 it says as for philip an angel of the lord said to him so an angel comes to philip and tells him go south down the desert road that runs from jerusalem to gaza so he started out and he met the treasure of ethiopia okay a eunuch of great authority under the candace the queen of ethiopia the eunuch had gone to jerusalem to worship and he was now returning seated in his carriage he was reading aloud from the book of the prophet isaiah the holy spirit said to philip go over and walk along beside the carriage this story is opening philip ran over and he heard the man reading from the prophet isaiah and he said he asked do you understand what you're reading the man replied how can i unless somebody instructs me okay time out this man from ethiopia has traveled all the way on pilgrimage to worship in jerusalem okay he is worshiping somehow probably because he's a foreign dignitary because he's you know serves in the in the queen's court he is given this treasure a handwritten scroll of the prophet isaiah like this is a treasure he has given this treasure and he's reading it and not on his way home you know in old school 405 i don't know he's on his way home in his chariot reading it and an angel comes to philip and says go down that old desolate desert road and philip could have said i'm tired but yesterday was leg day and i don't feel like doing that right it's hot i don't want to i have plans he could have said a million things but philip obeys and he goes right and so this man says how can i unless somebody instructs me and he urged philip to come up into the carriage and to sit with him and so the passage of scripture says that he was reading this i'm gonna skip over that because says what he was reading in verse 34 says the eunuch asked philip tell me was the prophet talking about himself or somebody else so beginning with the same scripture philip told him the good news about jesus as they rode along they came to some water and the eunuch said look there's some water why can't i be baptized he ordered the carriage to stop and they went down into the water and philip baptized him when they came up out of the water the spirit of the lord snatched philip away i'm sorry what just snatched that boy right up and like gone like wait what the eunuch never saw him again but went on his way rejoicing meanwhile philip found himself further north at the town of azotus he preached the good news there and in every town along the way until he came to caesarea what dude this story is crazy this story is crazy philip woke up and was like having some tea and some bread and jesus was like hey go down this road he's like really so he obeys he has this incredible you know gets to preach the gospel this man gets saved gets baptized oh hey by the way just gets like totally transported somewhere else and he's like guess while i'm here i'll preach right like what a day what a day in the life of philip right but you know what's interesting to me it says that an angel of the lord came to philip and told him to go if an angel the lord was gonna make the trek from heaven to come down and tell philip to walk down that road why didn't said angel just show up to the ethiopian and tell him the gospel i mean same distance same ways time isn't that interesting because god doesn't want to do it without us god wants to partner with you and now yes god could have done that and that man could have been saved and had an incredible experience but now two people had an incredible day two people left the day rejoicing wowing in amazement at who god is two people were impacted actually many more because think about all the people that you know uh philip's free ride probably got saved after he went preaching and who knows where right so when you think about it like this when we surrender ourselves to god's choice towards us when we surrender our choice towards god our ability for encounter with god and our ability to impact the world is exponential it's wildly exponential what will we choose are we going to really let jesus get in our boat we respond to the tug of the holy spirit in our life because friend the reality is you have been chosen for a great purpose in destiny i don't say that lightly i know that can be like church lingo this is the reality you have been chosen by god to live powerfully you hold the key of faith in your hand you have been blessed in the heavenly realms with every blessing you are loved and wanted and secure he chooses you he wants to partner with you just like he sent philip he wants to send you to do things that will make your heart come alive will we let him in our boat you know i think about esther when mordecai tells her and she's facing this huge problem and mordecai tells her how do you know esther it wasn't for such a time as this that you were born that you were placed where you are how do you know that it isn't for such a time as this that you have been placed next to that cranky neighbor that annoying co-worker that gardener that just kind of is so tender towards you how do you know for such a time as this right i think so often we wait for these big magical god moments in our life when the heavens part and the angels come and like i've arrived and i think so much of it is just the day late jesus you can have my boat right now when i'm tired and i just want to go home because i've been fishing all night and got nothing yes jesus you can get in my boat i think that's where the real power is i think it's in those choices that are so life-changing jeremiah 1 5 i chose you before i formed you in the womb i set you apart before you were born is do you believe that truth about yourself would you say that about yourself i'm set apart for god i can't escape it his mark of love is all over my life i i'm chosen by god i have purpose and destiny in my life my life is too great just to be out here trying to live like everybody else i am called do we believe that about ourselves because that's the truth are we going to live like orphans and beggars when we're royalty you're not a dime a dozen or god's masterpiece hmm i wanna i wanna um i wanna pray this over us this morning the end of that passage in ephesians 1 i'm going to pray this in a moment with what paul prayed over the church in ephesus but my prayer church for us is that we would get so rooted in this because i know that there's probably people in this room like me who maybe especially after this pandemic and all your social circles are kind of weird we were just talking about this with some friends yesterday it's like you know you have your social circle and then everything changes so much during the pandemic and it got a lot smaller or just different and it's like you know trying to figure out do i want all those friends again i miss some but i don't know that life was hard you know like everybody's in this wrestle right now in a lot of ways at the same time i think i think a lot you know maybe there's people in the stream who can relate to i don't i don't know that i always feel like i belong i don't really feel like i belong in the church i don't really feel like i belong in my industry i don't really feel like i belong in my family i don't really feel like i belong in this city i don't really feel like i belong we can do this all day long why because i know the enemy is a jerk and he does this all the time trying to tell us you're not right you're not good enough you don't belong nobody really likes you you know they're just pretending to like you all the things but what if we could get so set free from that because we get so rooted in the fact of you know i don't and this hear me with this but it's like i don't need your acceptance i don't i don't i love you and i want to be around you but i don't i don't need to belong with you because i am i am so rooted in who i belong to i'm so confident in the reality that i have been chosen by god with great purpose and destiny in my life right and that god is inviting me and wanting to partner with me listen to me god is asking today can i get in your boat because there are some fresh assignments for you as i was praying for our community like the lord saying there's some fresh assignments for people in this room it's not just what you've been doing in the past decade the past couple years the past six months there are some fresh assignments and god is saying i choose you and let me tell you he doesn't come looking for the most qualified he looks for the willing right if he's called you he's going to equip you with what you need look at history it's always mind-blowing you picked who really right it's not once again it's not about our qualifications about him and so i want you to be just mindful of that this week that god is is choosing us and inviting us to step into some things and does he have our yes does he have our yes i'm going to pray this over you ephesians 1 18 through 23 i pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he he has called you the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people and his incomparably great power for us who believe that power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms far above all rule and authority power and dominion and every name that is invoked not only in the present age but also in the one to come and god placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church which is his body the fullness of him who fills everything in every way so god i pray that the eyes of our heart would be enlightened to know the wild hope you've called us to i pray that you would open our eyes to understand how loved and chosen we are i pray for every person who has been struggling with feeling like you are a disappointment to god i break that lie off of you right now in jesus name and i declare of you there has never or anybody who's felt alone like you didn't belong or you weren't wanted i break that lie off and i declare this truth over you there wasn't a moment in your existence that you were not chosen and loved and desired and thought after and dreamed of and passionately pursued you belong and you are chosen as his son as his daughter and he has great purpose and destiny for your life but he is looking for your yes because he's not going to to force you to love his son god will not force us to love jesus he's not going to command us do this or it's over for you it's a choice just like i shared the story of me having to choose hona god loves our choice when our choice is engaged so father i pray for all of us this morning for a fresh yes in our choice towards you a fresh yes god for those lord who have felt like man we have been fishing all night i'm tired i it feels like this is not working i haven't been catching anything i'm tired i pray god that there would be courage to say yes again and that as you get into our lives as you get into just near us god i thank you that you are so with us lord and that you guide us and direct us i'll just take a minute and if as we're just in this place of prayer i don't know where you guys are today i think we're all probably in a lot of places but and for everybody watching online i wanna to take a moment if you're like man i i don't know that my choice towards jesus has been very engaged maybe you're kind of just floating or going through motion and and it hasn't really felt like yes jesus you have chosen me but i am choosing you not just you know oh i'm a christian i'm talking about like the daily choice in my heart and if that's you i want you just to take a moment and say jesus you have my fresh yes jesus you have my yes i choose you thank you for choosing me thank you for choosing me thank you for breaking me free from slave being a slave to sin from everything that i've come out of thank you jesus you have my fresh yes and i also want to just take a moment and if anybody's never made that commitment to follow christ and you've never um engaged your yes to him i want to pray for you too and if that's you and you're like i i want to say yes to jesus i want to follow him i haven't done that i haven't given my life to him and i want to do that just lift your hand and let me know if that's you and i want to pray with you is there anybody yeah okay i'm gonna just pray for us father i pray for anybody lord that's watching or that's here today god that is feeling this pull lord to surrender to say yes to you jesus we thank you for your forgiveness we thank you for your love we thank you that you choose us despite ourselves and god we ask that you would take our lives we give you permission to lead us to direct us we ask that you would forgive us of our sins lord and god we say yes a big fat yes to you today have your way in our lives god we say yes to following you get in my boat jesus i want to learn to live your way i swing wide the door of my heart open to you we love you and we thank you jesus speak your blessings over every person here god that you would expand them and bless them this week i pray lord holy spirit that their their spirits would be extra sensitive to the holy spirit's nudgings this week just like you nudged philip lord in that moment lord i pray that when we come back next week lord we would all come back with stories of how we said yes and obeyed and leaned into those nudgings lord i thank you father to speak your blessings over every person in jesus name amen you

Channel: Expression 58

Views: 360

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: shawn bolz, bolz, cherie bolz, expression 58, expression58, e58, church, los angeles church, revival, jen toledo, jennifer toledo, jona toledo, bolz ministries

Id: -MGQWTXkV3k

Length: 60min 59sec (3659 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 10 2021