You Are Chosen To Be God’s Family

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, “You can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family.”  When it comes to your family, your parents, your siblings, your blood relatives, you didn’t get to choose them. You are born into the family. I can only imagine what some of you are thinking right now.  “Yes, I was born into a wonderful family!”  And others of you might be saying, “I’m stuck with my family.” So, whether the family you grew up with or are growing up with was awesome or horrible, you didn’t choose your family. I can make the same point from the Word of God before us today.  St. Paul was inspired by the Holy Spirit to give us another Unexpected Truth!  God’s Grace Is Amazing!  No one here chose to be a member of God’s family as John wrote,

You did not choose me, but I chose you.

John 15:16

I know you’re smiling with me right now because if being a member of God’s family was left up to me, I would have ruined it.  However for you and me to have been chose as a member of God’s family, the Lord God who is rich in mercy, graciously chose to take you in and to make you a part of his family.  Therefore, rejoice for  

You Are Chosen To Be A Member of God’s Family

Because of His Mercy

When we talk about families our thoughts often travel to thinking about various relationships.  You probably respect and honor some family members, however some others might get into trouble or be tempted to make bad choices in their life and your relationship with them might not be so good.  Likewise, you know that your membership at Divine Peace makes you part of our “church family.”  No matter what our relationship is with each other, there is one relationship that matters because it lasts forever.  In chapter 8 St. Paul said,

¹⁵ For you did not receive a spirit of slavery so that you are afraid again, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we call out, “Abba, Father!” ¹⁶ The Spirit himself joins our spirit in testifying that we are God’s children.  ¹⁷ Now if we are children, we are also heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, since we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him.

Romans 8:15-17

Praise the Lord!  Because of his mercy you have a very close and personal relationship with God.

You just heard that you are a member of God’s family by God’s Grace through faith in Jesus Christ.  Yet, the devil wants to twist this fact by firing up sinful pride so people think they had something to do with this miracle of God’s Grace!  Listen,

⁶ This does not mean that God’s word has failed, because not all who are descended from Israel are really Israel, ⁷ and not all who are descended from Abraham are really his children. On the contrary, “Your line of descent will be traced through Isaac.” ⁸ This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are counted as his descendants.

Paul was addressing this issue by pointing out a false teaching.  There were Jewish people who thought that because they were blood descendants of Abraham, they were automatically a part of God’s family. In other words, they thought they were simply “born into it” by their blood. In the Old Testament, God chose Abraham to be the father of a great nation through which the promise of a Savior from sin and death would be fulfilled. This was a special nation, God’s chosen people.  God choosing Abraham and his descendants had nothing to do with who he was, but totally because of God’s Mercy!  However, many in the Jewish Nation had failed to follow the Lord according to his Word and lost their relationship with God as he had warned them:

¹⁵ See now, today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and disaster. ¹⁶ This is what I am commanding you today: Love the Lord your God, walk in his ways, and keep his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances. Then you will live and increase in number, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are going to possess. ¹⁷ But if your heart turns away, and you do not listen, and you are lured away, and you bow down to other gods and serve them, ¹⁸ then I declare to you today that you will most certainly perish. You will not live a long life on the land that you are about to enter and possess by crossing over the Jordan

Deuteronomy 30:15-18

The Jews of Paul’s day choose to ignore Moses’ warning and follow their own ways to try and live in a relationship with the Lord of their own choosing.  It didn’t work.  This would be like a child of a wealthy parent who thinks that they are privileged and can do whatever they want because of their mom or dad.

Let us heed this warning for this same attitude exists in all of us.  While I don’t think anyone here thinks they are members of God’s family because of their ancestry, the idea that God will welcome us into his family if we followed the rules is part of our sinful nature.  It would be like if some stranger comes in off the street into your home and says he wants to be a part of your family. He sits down at your dinner table, does the dishes, walks the dog, takes out the trash, laughs at the family stories. But just because he’s trying to do family things, doesn’t make him a part of your family. Recognize this danger and listen to God’s Word.  Then you’ll be able to live free as a Chosen Child Of God! Here are some examples:

1. Are you Lutheran because your parents were or because you want to be? 
2. Are you a baptized child of God because of something you did or because of something miraculous that God did for you? 
3. Do you think that you belong in God’s family as long as you follow some commandments, go to church, put some money in the offering plate, control your tongue, recite the prayers, and you can settle right into the kitchen table with God?

Please get this self-righteous thinking out of your heads. You cannot enter into a family relationship with God on your own. The reason you can’t is because of sin. Every act of disobedience tears you apart from God and makes you an outsider, a stranger that doesn’t belong, can’t belong in a perfect relationship with a holy God. The only thing you are entitled to or inherit from your ancestors is a sinful nature that deserves to be punished. God’s word says,

¹⁶ So then, it does not depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.

Praise the Lord!  God choose to make you a part of his family purely because of his mercy.  Thank you Jesus!  Because of you we trust in God’s mercy that is a Promise From God He Will Not Break!

Because of His Promise

Paul used two illustrations of this truth. The first we talked about, namely, that physical descent is not a guarantee that you’ll have a place in God’s family.  This is the second illustration. God promised Abraham that he would be the father of a great nation. The problem, Abraham was 75 years old when this promise was made and he and his wife Sarah, had never been able to have children. Abraham trusted God’s promise…most the time. You see, about 10 years after receiving the promise Abraham and Sarah still didn’t have any children. Instead of waiting patiently on the Lord, they tried to help God along. Abraham had a child named Ishmael through Sarah’s servant, Hagar. But this wasn’t the way God had promised. God would fulfill his promise and blessed Sarah and Abraham with a child, Isaac. Even though Ishmael was a natural child of Abraham, God had chosen Isaac to carry forth his promise of a Savior. In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.  When God makes a promise, it’s as good as done!  The birth of Jesus proves it!

So, you were saved and made a child in God’s family purely because of God’s promise to you. This promise is that God sent you the Savior who rescued you from sin and brings you to God.  You know the sins from which you have been rescued.  Perhaps you were impatient in life when you feel like God’s promise isn’t being fulfilled. When the weight of sin keeps you awake at night. When the stress of living leaves you worn out and weary. When your best efforts seem to fail. You will be tempted to forget God’s Promise and look for a different way. But turn to the promise fulfilled in Christ Jesus.

Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved…

Ephesians 2:4-5

This second illustration was passed on Abraham’s grandchildren, Jacob and Esau (whom he knew before he died!). They were twins conceived at the same time. Before they were born, before they did anything in life, good or bad, God chose Jacob, the younger, to be the one through whom the promised Savior would come. Paul explains God’s Promise:

…not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” This decision wasn’t made by works, but purely by God’s mercy.” 

God gave his Word of Promise to Keep His Word of Mercy!

Likewise, God chose you to be a part of his family.

But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.

Titus 3:5-7

This and other passages that talk about God choosing you to be his own can sometimes be challenging because it brings up the natural questions of why did God choose me and not someone else. While we don’t know the answers to all the questions, let’s not overlook the simple truth that the Lord sets before us today. God is merciful.  God keeps his promises.

So, while it is true that You can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family, rejoice that God chose you and me who have no right to be a part of his family. He chose you by grace. He brought you into a relationship of faith that loves and trusts in him. And because of this mercy, you get to enjoy God’s promises. The best is yet to happen!  God chose you in Christ Jesus to be his child and to have a place in his eternal, heavenly family! Take great comfort in this and rejoice with your brothers and sisters that you have Divine Peace because You Are Chosen To Be In God’s Family! Amen!