YOU ARE ACCEPTED IN GOD’S FAMILY!
When I was 12 years old, I tried out for a little league baseball team, but because of my deficient athletic ability, I was cut from the team during tryouts. However, the second year I tried out for the team, I made a position on the team! What was the difference from the first year to the second? I didn’t go to baseball camp, and I didn’t have a major increase in my athletic abilities. However… the second year, my best friend’s dad was the coach of the team! I didn’t deserve to be on that team, but because my best friend’s dad was the coach, I was accepted! Sure, maybe I spent most of my time that season as a professional bench warmer, but I was on the team.
My true story is a great picture of how we become Christians. Our best friend, Jesus’s Dad - God the Father - is the ’coach’ of the team! God doesn’t choose only those who are the strongest, smartest, or best looking to be in His family - God doesn’t look at the outward appearance at all - He looks at the heart! Consider this amazing Scripture:
KEY TEXT:
“3 How we praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we belong to Christ. 4 Long ago, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5 His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure. 6 So we praise God for the wonderful kindness he has poured out on us because we belong to his dearly loved Son. (He has made us accepted in the Beloved - NKJV).” (Ephesians 1:3-6, NLT).
God loves you, God chose you, God adopted you, and God accepts you in His family.
What does it mean that you are accepted?
Accepted defined:
· To receive especially with gladness or approval: “This gave Him great pleasure.”
- God wasn’t like, “All right, we’ll take so and so, since no one else wants Him…”
· To admit to a group: “He adopted us into his own family.”
We are a part of the same family! We belong to each other. Let’s get each other’s backs.
TONIGHT I want to encourage you with the truth that: You Are Accepted in God’s Family!
DAVID CHOSEN TO BE KING:
(Background from 1 Samuel 16:1-5).
The Bible tells the story of how God sent the prophet Samuel to choose the next King in the nation of Israel. He went to a man named Jesse who had seven sons, and called them together.
“So it was, when they came, that he looked at Eliab and said, "Surely the Lord’s anointed is before Him." But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart…"
Thus Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, "The Lord has not chosen these." And Samuel said to Jesse, "Are all the young men here?" Then he said, "There remains yet the youngest, and there he is, keeping the sheep." And Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and bring him…" So he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, with bright eyes, and good-looking. And the Lord said, "Arise, anoint him; for this is the one!" Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward.”
(1 Samuel 16:6-13).
Notice that God didn’t choose the biggest, the oldest, the smartest or the strongest. God’s choice of David was not based on any of those things! God chooses us, and loves and accepts us - because of Jesus! God loves and accepts YOU!
ALTAR CALL:
John 1:12 – “But as many as received Jesus, to them He gave the right to become the children of God...”
Have you received Jesus as your Lord and Saviour? If you have, then you are loved, you are accepted, you are adopted into God’s family!
