Four, Ok Five Prompts For Praise

Introduction:

I. How many of us here this morning would say,

A. I just want to praise God all the time,

B. I never have periods of doubt or disappointment,

C. I just always trust, and God always comes through.

II. Probably many of you might say, “Yep. That’s me” but perhaps others of you would be a bit like me.

A. I always know that I can always trust God.

B. I always know that I should always be praising God.

C. But sometimes reality hits me square between the eyes, and I end up saying things like,

1. Where are you God?

2. 2. Why have you deserted me God?

III. Maybe it’s during those times when you have an illness that just doesn’t seem to want to go away.

A. Maybe it’s during those times when you get fired or laid off, or in my case just about one year ago, I felt that I really had no option except to resign from a church and a job that I truly loved,

IV. If we are honest, we would probably all have to say, “Yep. That’s me.”

A. Sometimes up, But

B. Sometimes down,

C. Sometimes even way down.

V. The reality is, probably all of us have times like that, even the writer of this

VI. The write of Psalm 60, seems to have had those times

B. Read Ephesians 1:3-14

Chosen for Holiness (vs. 4)

3 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, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love

I. Paul is excited.

A. He is going to be writing, as he often does, about salvation through faith in Christ.

B. One of the great by-products of telling other people about Christ is that it reminds us of what we have in Christ.

II. At it’s core, Paul’s message is,

A. God loves you,

B. Listen to Ephesians 2:8,

1. “For by grace you have been saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God.”

2. God loves us so much, that He even gives us the faith that we need to believe in Him.

III. As Paul is recalling his salvation, he says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” and he is going to list at least 5 reasons why in these next verses.

IV. Prompt number one, “We have been chosen for holiness and blamelessness.”

A. When you see the word “holy” or “holiness” I want you to automatically see, “Set apart for God’s purposes.”

1. Something is holy, it is set apart for God’s purposes.

2. When we trust in Christ for our salvation, we are made “holy” we are “set a part for God’s purposes.”

V. I want to ask us to disregard a couple of things for a moment.

A. Disregard the arguments of who chose who.

B. Disregard the ramifications for those whom God does not chose.

C. Just read the words, “God chose us,” and think about what it feels like to be chosen.

VI. If your husband or wife, or boyfriend or girlfriend are with you this morning, I want to ask you to take their hand for just a moment, look them in the eye, and consider this.

A. Just think;

1. That person whom you pursued, has probably been pursued by many others.

2. That person, who knows you so well, knows your limitations, knows your faults, in some of our cases, who sees us in the morning before we even brush our teeth.

3. That person could have chosen anyone of hundreds of other people, BUT, they chose you.

B. That’s a little bit like God choosing us.

1. God knows us intimately, He made us, YET He chose us.

2. God knows every one of our faults, because God knows everything, YET He chose us anyway.

VII. And look at the verse again; it says, “God chose us, BEFORE the foundation of the world.”

A. When was that?

1. It was a long time ago.

2. It was before we were even born,

3. It was certainly before we were “Holy and blameless” since we can’t come close to holy or blameless without Christ.

B. God chose us when we were, “unholy and rightfully blames.

C. God chose us, and because He chose us, we are “set apart for His purposes, and we are without spot or blemish.” if we are in Christ.

VIII. Prompt Number One - We were chosen to be “Holy and Blameless.”

IX. Prompt Number Two, We were chosen for adoption.

Chosen for Adoption (vs. 5&6)