Predestined in Christ

*A bit of context. The prop that I used in this episode to help people visualize my topic is a suitcase that has 'Predestination' written on the front along with Eph 2:10 as well as "God's Will". Inside are promises, not only from these verses, but also from Rom 8:29-30. 

The life we have in Christ is one of mystery, adventure and abundance. In this episode we look at what is predestination. What has God predestined for those who are IN Christ? Does He ultimately decide who is saved and who isn't? How can we know or understand what God has for each one of us? 

I again take a humble approach to a very controversial topic. I am not saying that I know more than the millions of other Christians before me who debated this topic for centuries. However, I do feel that the Lord has pressed it upon me to share what I do believe. 

Transcript

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These ones aren't that good. I'll just give you a forewarning. So lower the expectation. Okay, this one's called the church steeple. This church steeple on the old church is very high and was being painted on a rather hot day. The painter was about halfway down as the steeple was widening out and it was taking more and more paint. The painter felt that he might not have enough paint to finish. Since it was hot and tired and did not care to make another trip to the ground, he decided to stretch the amount of paint by adding some paint into it. Then, when finished, he lowered himself to the ground and went out and cleaned up. Then he looked up to see the results of his work and noted that the area with the thin paint looked decidedly different. He was pondering about what to do about it when the sky turned dark and there was a lightning flash and a loud thunder clap. Then a loud booming voice from the sky came and says, Repaint and thin no more. This one's called Elijah's Test. The Sunday school teacher was explaining the story of Elijah, the prophet, and the false prophets of Baal to her clash. She explained how Elijah built the altar, put wood upon it, cut the steer to pieces, and laid it upon the altar. And then Elijah commanded the people of God to fill four barrels of water and pour it over the altar. He had them then do this four times. Now said the teacher, can anyone in the class tell me why the Lord would have Elijah pour water over the steer on the altar? The little girl raised her hand. With great enthusiasm, she said, To make the gravy! Our verse, our main verse that we've been kind of referring back to is John 17, 3, which says, This is eternal life. To know you, the one true God, and Him you've sent, Jesus Christ. This is the center of the Christian experience, the life in Christ, and what we are called to live in is knowing God, not just cerebrally, but in a relational way. We talked about abiding in Christ, which is from John 15, and Jesus is talking about he is the vine and we are the branches. And that Jesus, in like manner, was fully dependent upon the Father. He said over and over throughout his ministry, I only do what I see my Father doing. I can do nothing of myself. I only do what the Father has me to do. I don't judge myself, but all judgment is the Father's, and he instructs me. And so even Jesus Christ has exemplified this abiding life in God. And that our strength, our abilities, our life of Christ, our ability to do anything other than sin and destruction and brokenness comes through this abiding life in Christ. And as it says in John 15, 9 and 10, it says, As the Father has loved me, I have loved you. This is Christ. Abide in my love. He's saying, like, sss now, stay there. Stay right there. In your mind, in your heart, in your relationships, the good times, the bad times. If we can abide right there in all circumstances, this is how we see the life of Christ pouring out through us. And if you obey my Father's commands, or if you obey my Father's commands, you abide in my love just as I have obeyed my Father's commandments and abide in his love. But what is the command? Abide. This keeps appointing back to this abide. This stay, remain attached to this vine of Jesus Christ. So how? How do we become grafted into this? We talked about this through the gospel. The first step is believing in Jesus Christ, his perfect payment on the cross, and his resurrection. And that is how we are grafted in. We talked about grafting a little bit, and how when one plant is grafted into another, the expression of that fruit or that flower becomes unique because the rootstock is expressing a certain genetic potential. And the graft, the scion, is then adding to that genetic potential, and you get different types of fruit, you get different types of colorful flowers, and so each one of us grafted into Christ becomes a unique expression of this life of God revealed in the earth. And that's exciting. That's not something that you know the difference between religion is that it's saying you're always failing and you're not quite enough and you should try harder. But this life in Christ is always saying, hey, there's more. Come. Yep, I know you tripped, I know you fell, I know you did this, I know you did that, but there's more. It's a calling up rather than a putting down. It's an excitement and a joy in thinking of what God has in store for us and what he wants for each one of our lives, even though maybe we're not experiencing it right now. Right? Okay. So God has kind of put upon my heart to look at these statements of in him or in Christ, talking about these people who are abiding in Christ. And if you have received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and you trust him for your eternal salvation and that he's taken your sin away, you are grafted into this tree. You are in the vine. Now the expression of that is the next journey of our trip, the next chapter of this faith and life in Jesus Christ. So you find a lot of these in Christ statements in Ephesians chapter 1. And so we've been going through Ephesians chapter 1 rather slowly so far, particularly because it's about being chosen and selected and predestination, which is not a subject I would ever choose to delve into, but here we are. And that is also why I'm sitting. I guess I'll explain that a little later. So, Ephesians 1, 3, we talked about a couple weeks ago, it says, God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Where? In Christ. In Him. Again, this is talking about those who are abiding in Jesus Christ. And we talked about how blessings are made to flow through our life. And I kind of likened it to I've never seen an apple tree or cherry tree trying to eat its own fruit, right? The fruit is for everyone else. It's the outflow of the life of God in us. And it's his desire. So we all have abilities, talents, resources that God wants us to bless others with. Not to become, what we've talked about, as a dead sea because nothing flows out. So one of the questions, well, the main question I think in that is how am I to be a blessing? And this is a question that I'd really encourage you to ask God because he's really the only one who can answer that well. Because he's placed within each one of us, like I said, with that grafting a unique expression of what God has for each one of us. So if, like for Leslie, she not only hires a decent amount of people, and probably a lot of young people, right? That's a huge blessing for them. And how she hosts families and people and events, like a lot of family things happen right around your restaurant. That's a blessing to the community. Farmers, you help feed people, you support your family, you support the local businesses. That's another expression. But I think even beyond that, like, what does God place within your heart that if you were to think there's no limits or you take all the boundaries off, what's in your heart to do? What does God place there? And I think part of what this church body in general, the church of Christ, the body of Christ, is meant to do is to get resources and people and stuff, and then when we find what maybe the Lord's put on someone's heart, we get behind that with that, to encourage, to promote, to help them along in what God's wanting to express to their lives. Joelle's done that through first love. The number of ladies that she's had speak or be a part of that, she's not trying to do it all. She's always very willing and ready to empower, activate other ladies to do what God's placed upon their heart. That's a blessing. That is a way that each one of us can pour out what God has put into us. Sorry if I embarrassed any of you. Leanne. I'm sorry. Leanne. Everyone knew. Okay, so anyway, 2 Corinthians chapter 9 says in there, God is able to make all grace abound towards you that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. Always having all sufficiency in all things. Doesn't sound to me like that's limited. Petering along, scraping along. Alright, so Ephesians 4. Last week we talked about just as he chose us in him before the foundations of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. The two of kind of the building blocks that we started with was that we have a free will or a choice. We looked at several different scriptures, and I'd encourage you to go back to last week's sermon if you wanted to listen to that. But a few of the scriptures were like Acts 17.30. Now God commands all men everywhere to repent. Titus 2.11. The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. Matthew 10, 28, come unto me all who are weary and heavy laden. 1 Timothy 2.4, God desires that all men would be saved and come to the knowledge of God. 2 Peter 3.9. God is willing that none should perish, but all should have eternal life. So what we conclude from that is that that is not always happening. God's will is not always happening. So whose will is happening in these situations? Man's. Okay, so we first started out with there is free will, there is a choice that people have to either accept or reject Jesus Christ. Building block number two was that God knows everything. But just because he knows everything does not mean that he decides everything. So we talked about this thing called foreknowledge. God seeing all things and all history forever, did not select your choice before you made it. But as we found, we went to Matthew's, because God exists outside of time. We talked about that. Went into little you know quantum physics and everyone lost everyone. No, I'm trying to. But this idea of we exist in time, but God doesn't. Well then when does God do stuff? He said before the foundation of the world. Okay, so then we would say, well, then he selected it first. But the idea was that he knew beforehand that we would choose him. And he chose us. So what did he choose? Well, we talked about in Matthew 20 and in 22, there's two parables that Jesus tells, and at the end of them he says, Many are called, but few are chosen. But I just want to focus on Matthew 22, where he invites everybody to a wedding feast. Everybody. The high, the low, the rich, the poor, the broken, everybody. And it says that many people rejected it. Many people said, I'm too busy, I got things to do, they go their own way. And what comes about is judgment. This idea of free will, if you think about it, how could God send anyone to hell? This is this in part, I think, shows the weight of our ability to choose. Is that when we say yes to God, we say, your will be done. And when people say no to God, he says, Okay, your will be done. The weight of that choice is upon each and every soul to make. Okay, so I come back to the wedding feast. He invites everyone. Many of them don't come, they're judged. But those who come through Christ get to stay and receive a robe. And they are in eternal connection, relationship, uh, and eternal life, essentially, is the end of this. And then at the end of that parable it says, Many are called, few are chosen. So my question was, well, what's being chosen? Is it the person choosing? Is it God? Well, he's saying everyone is called, but few choose to come, right? But then of all those who come to him, he chooses to give them righteousness. And then we we come back to this first, then. Uh verse 4, just as he chose us, oh, in him, in Christ, before the foundations of the world, what did he choose? That we should be holy and without blame before him in love. What an amazing thing. So I think one thing that we commonly do is we look at salvation as kind of just this all-encompassing thing of, yeah, we're justified, we we're righteous, we're sons, we're adopted, we're heirs, we're receivers of the promise. But each one of those things is a whole world of exploration, each one of those. So he could easily have just saved us, and that's it. He wouldn't have to adopt us. What made him want to make us then his children? Wow, when we start segregating that apart, we start seeing like, well, there's so much intentionality, there's so much depth to what he's done for us and on our behalf. Didn't just stop it, okay, now you're not going to go to hell, just go figure it out. It's like, no, now I want you to become like my son. In what way? In every way. What do you mean? Well, come and find out. This is the abiding life. Not that we serve, we accumulate answers to every problem and every question, but that we are on a journey now with God to reveal. What have you placed in my life? How do you want me to express Jesus Christ? What is this sanctification? How do I live in righteousness? All of this stuff becomes now a journey and not a destination. So, kind of summing up last week, or man has a choice, which many of us call free will. God has all knowledge and knows all things beforehand and all who will choose him. And then God is outside of that time that man is constrained to. So then God chooses those who are in Christ in response to us receiving Christ and the gospel to be holy and blameless in love. Now, maybe again that seems like a little hard to grasp, but we'll get into it more today because we're just building upon these blocks, and that's why I find it important to go back and talk about what we talked about last week, because it's building up to something. Alright, so let's read these verses again. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ. Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Next. Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he made us accepted in the beloved. Alright, I'm gonna pray. Lord, thank you for this time. Pray, Holy Spirit, that you would have your way and reveal to us the glorious nature of Jesus Christ, the truth of your word, that we would be able to grasp yet a little more your nature, your love, your goodness towards me, and that we would live in it. Thank you. In Jesus' name. Amen. I'll just say that I said it last week, but I'm sitting because I know that these topics are have been debated and are very, can be a very heated debate between much wiser and more knowledgeable people than myself for centuries. And that I am sharing with you what I believe to be true and how I read and perceive these scriptures, which may be wrong. Now you probably haven't heard somebody say from a pulpit before that they may be wrong. But I may be wrong. I don't think I'm wrong. But I want to I want to be humble in it. Because to be prideful in any of this means you're wrong to start with. So if I'm humble, then I am right. No, I'm joking. Gotcha! So that is why I'm sitting, because I want to remind myself and all of us that we are, again, exploring Jesus Christ. Maybe in 10 years from now, I'll like want to delete the existence of this sermon off the internet because I said things that I don't believe anymore. But I just want I just want to take the pressure off of you trying to figure out if I'm right or not, or if this just let's just explore this. And then you can go ask God how wrong I am, and then you can email me later of all the YouTube videos that say otherwise. So, anyway, that's why I'm sitting because I want to just this is a talk with friends. Now, uh note in these verses having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ Himself according to the good pleasure of his will, praise the glorious grace. This is like a long run-on sentence, and it's hard to understand. Okay, when people talk about predestination, I oftentimes get the feeling like they're talking about God preselected people for salvation. He chooses who's going to be saved and who's not. But note when it's talking about this, it does not say God predetermined our salvation. No, it says he predetermined to adopt us as children in response to us receiving Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Like I've believed how I'm speaking to you today for quite some time, but I couldn't articulate it. So I've had to like dig down deep and start to really see what I how do I convey what I what I feel like these scriptures are saying. And what I noted was if you start to separate like adoption or being made holy and blameless, apart from just being saved from your sin, predestination never talk is never talking about our salvation. It's talking about the overflow of what comes after that moment. It's starting to talk about what he's given us in response to us saying yes to Jesus Christ. We'll get into that a little more. Let's go to Romans. 8, 29, and 30. So this is another scripture. For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be formed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among men and the brethren. Moreover, whom he predestined, these he also called. Whom he called, these he also justified. Okay, so here again, it's a very common scripture talking about predestination. So again, whom he foreknew? The people he knew before time existed, because he knows all things. And he knew they would select him. He's predestined them to be what? Conform to the image of the Son. Not just to be saved from hell, but to be like Jesus Christ. In what way? Every way. I believe. In his humility, in his strength, in his courage, and his power, and his ability to heal, and his ability to know the will of God and to submit to that perfectly. We get that. God wants to give that to us. He's predetermined that part of the goal of our lives is to be like his son. Wow. That he might be the firstborn of our many brethren. We are now brothers of Jesus Christ. That's also predetermined for you. You're seen as a sibling of the most high God. Wow. But we could easily skip over that because we don't really understand what that means, but whatever, you know. But if we start looking at it, thinking about it, we're not just folks down here. Like we're sons and daughters of God. Well, what does that mean? I don't feel like that. Well, maybe you should catch up to what the reality is, right? Like maybe, maybe we don't always believe what we feel, right? And we start actually asking God, like, what does that mean? If I'm abiding in him, now I start to ask him, what does that even mean? How do I even do that? Okay, so I need again a small troop of children. This is where it gets exciting. Chloe, James, Erilyn, Daniel, Salem. Okay. Alright, you boys, rock, paper, scissor it out. Okay. Well, you know, first shall be last, last person. Okay, James went, so girls, rock, paper, scissor it out. I went to Japan. I was in Japan in college and they played rock, paper, scissors for like anything to like select somebody. But I never knew you could play with more than two people, and I like really, they would sit there like five people and play it till one person won. Okay, you won? Alright. Was it James? Chloe. Okay, so. I know. But the first will be last and the last first. So gotcha! Okay, you two have. So I'm God. So I have the wife. So before time existed, I saw into the future. You know, it talks about the same time that the lamb was slain before the foundation of the world. You know, grate your little pea brain on that for a while. And it's like, how does that happen? But he knew before time existed that James and Chloe were going to be in his son. Now, before they even knew it, God chose them then, knowing that they were going to do that, to be holy and blameless before him in God's love. Okay? So he knows this. So he knows that they're going to receive his son and abide in him, and because everyone who abides in him gets to be chosen, to be in God's love, and to be holy and blameless. Okay? Now, I know this before time exists. So now they're living their life and they finally come to the point of giving their life to Jesus Christ, to believing and being grafted into Jesus Christ. Now come put your hand on the cross here. So now they're abiding. Now I chose them before time existed, but it was in response to knowing that they would be in Jesus Christ. They would give their lives to him. Now comes predestination. So he also predestined them to be conformed into the image of God. Back in Ephesians, it talks about so predestined to be adopted as sons by God according to the good pleasure of his will. God's will. It's in this pre-packed, readied, purified, predestined things that God wants for their lives. The will of God. We also talked about this a few weeks ago in Ephesians 2.10, that God has created good works for each one of us to do in our lives, right? Now these folks, they don't want God's will for their life. So I can't choose them to give them what I have for their life because they don't want it. They've rejected God. They've rejected His will. I can't choose them. I can't give them what I want to give them. Because they have cut off the ability for my will to be done in their life. Alright, so you guys can see that. Thanks, Jesus. Choose Jesus. Alright, so I want to show you guys what I've packed for you. Okay, 1 Corinthians 2, 9 through 10. But as it is written, no eye has seen, nor ear has heard, nor has entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him. But God has revealed them to us through his Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. So what before Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit could come to us, you couldn't even imagine the things that I packed in this bag. But now through the Holy Spirit, through this abiding life, you can begin to know and unpack what God has for you. So what are some of the things? He's predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus. Adopted sons of God. Now each one of these things we could study out for months. We could delve into the depths of what does it mean to be an adopted son of God. You know, I used to hear people like kids would be made fun of because they're adopted. I thought that was always so stupid. It's like their parents picked them, yours didn't. Right? If you're just forced to it. Anyway, that's a different conversation. But the idea that God would desire and want us as his children. However messed up you think you are, however jacked up and far away from God, whatever, he wants you. He wants you to be in his kingdom. He wants to give you of the abundance of his love and goodness to you. That's his joy. 2 Peter 1, 3 through 5, as his divine power has given to us all things pertaining to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature. Up until this point, like part you are not only given everything you need for life and godliness, but you become partakers of the divine nature. You can experience the nature and goodness of God and be like part of that. Okay, that's mind-blowing. Like, again, any one of these things we could delve into for months and never get to the end of. Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through us, that's 2 Peter 1, 3 through 5. Oh, but there's more. The original infomercial was Ephesians chapter 1. But no, you are now accepted in the beloved. We are not just marginally accepted, we're fully accepted. We are predestined to be accepted. He pre-packaged, he has already laid these things out for us beforehand. That we should walk in them, Ephesians 2.10. Oh, but there's more. Let's go over to Romans 29. 8.29, sorry. So those he foreknew, he saw them ahead of time, he predestined, packed this bag, so that they might be formed, conformed to the image of Christ. That they may look like Jesus Christ. That's what the original word Christian meant. Little Jesuses. Little anointed ones running around. You know, they're kind of like making fun of Christians, but at the same time, it's like they at least acknowledge like these people are different. These people are like that dude that they crucified. And they say Rose again, but these people act like him. They're like this Jesus. Now, how can we ever do that in our own strength? You can't. Religion says you can't. It's a liar. Only through this abiding life in God, only through this walk with him, unpacking this predestined load of blessings and goodness, can we begin to step into what he's done for us? Those, okay. These he also, what? Called. So it's like this progressive revelation of what God does with our lives after our point of salvation. He doesn't just leave us broken and, well, you just got in. Well, and you're adopted. Oh, and you've been given an inheritance. And I've called you. And I've given, I've set up these great precious promises for you. And I've set up life abundant and all this goodness in your life. It just keeps, it just keeps, he just keeps leveling up what he's telling you. Call. Those of you called thee also justified, as if you had never sinned. Not only does he take your sin away, he treats you like you never ever sin again. I don't know if I could. That's a lot. Yeah. It does. It gets a little overwhelming in a good way. And then he glorified. Glorified. You mean like maybe that partaker in the nature of the divine? Is he also glorified? So like. Wow. But that's not all. There's over 200 promises just in the New Testament that he's also given to us. He will expose to us secrets. He will give divine recognition of who you are before the heavenly host. You'll get a prophet's reward if you follow the things of God, the righteous man's reward. But that's not all. Because these promises also include that all the promises of the Old Testament are now ours in Jesus Christ. So, wow. Like, and this is God's joy to give this to us. And he's thought about this for a long time. He's prepared this for a long time. And that is part of the express privilege and joy of Christian experience is to unpack this thing for the rest of your breathing life. Then when we get to heaven, we'll see all the compartments we never even looked in. Alright, you guys are good. Thank you. Kind of seems a little too good to be true. Well, that's the definition of the gospel. So then the next chapter in Romans, whom he justified, he's he glorified. What then shall we say of these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? A lot of people can be against us. All hell is against us. A lot of the workers of iniquity of this world are against us, principalities and powers, rulers of this dark age. But what is he really saying? Nobody who matters. Nobody who matters is against us. If God is for us. Do we have an ex curse or no? Nope. Okay. Good. Here is um. So I'm go, I'm gonna just go down the road of. Okay. Sometimes, sometimes I just take things out to the extreme of your standing before God, and you you know you have this belief system, and then let's fast forward to I'm standing in front of God, giving an answer for my wife. And uh he brings up this belief system, right? Like he like, you thought I wanted to heal everybody? You know, isn't that a little extreme? You know, I'm I'm flattered you think I'm that good and that powerful. But really, yeah, that's funny. You're just funny, you know. Come in, enter my rest, right? Like if I believe that God wanted to heal everyone. There's the extreme of that. Like, what if I'm wrong standing in front of God? Oh, you're just silly. You thought everyone, you thought I wanted to heal everyone. You thought my stripes actually covered everyone's everyone's sickness and disease. Oh, you're just you're just awesome. Okay, get it here. Okay, let's go to the other extreme. I don't think God heals anyone. Now you're standing in front of God and he goes, My son was ripped apart and whipped for that. And you didn't even believe? Because you wanted to take your experiences and put them onto my word. I put above my own name, and you'll just put it aside because of your experiences or disappointments. I don't want to be that guy. So I'm not saying just believe in things that you think even if you're wrong, maybe God would still be okay with you in the end. That's that's not really what I'm saying, but I'm just saying extrapolate the extreme of both directions, and then picture yourself answering for that in front of heaven. This is one of the extremes. Predestination. I think God just chooses everyone. We don't really have a say, because this is it extremely. I don't think we have a say. And so whoever God selects, he selects for whatever reason. But a part of that's also a problem, because if he's selecting someone, he probably has a reason for it. And if that reason is somehow they're good, or they've done something right, other than just receiving Jesus Christ, then their righteousness or their salvation actually isn't grace. It's predicated on them. It's not their belief, but it's actually predicated on them doing something. You see what I mean? All of a sudden the grace of God gets lowered down to nothing. And then why do we pray? If everything's predetermined, why do we pray? Why do we evangelize? Why do we even care to uh do anything good with our life? And then whatever hole we find ourselves in, we just lay in it. It's got like serpents and scorpions all over us. We're like, well, I guess God just wants me down here. Because he's predetermined this hole. And he knew I stepped in it. I stepped in it and we don't live life like that. You get sick, you go to a doctor. You don't buy a new field, and then you say, Well, if God wants wheat to come up in that bad boy, it's gonna just happen. So in reality, we don't live like that, but then when we get into the spirit, we kind of think that that's the thing. Isn't that silly? Wow, spray for weeds, because I don't believe wheat. I mean, if weeds want to grow in my field, it must be God's will. Hallelujah. No, we have this free will, we have this opportunity to experience what God has for our lives, and we can continually, just as in salvation, we can continually choose his will or my will, which is the words of Jesus, not my will, but your will be done. Now, every step of life, we have this choice to go with what he's packed in here or our own way. So that's another extreme. Now you're standing before God and he's like, hey, what about this? And he's like, I just thought that was supposed to happen. I just thought you chose it, and then I just kind of walk through life and get through it, and then we're all gonna be okay. And he was like, Didn't you read the book? Didn't you realize like we are now co-laborers of Jesus Christ? That we are now like given dominion and power on this earth. Wait, I thought you had all power and authority. I do. I gave it to you to do something. Okay? So there's the other extreme. Now the one that's kind of in between, the extreme of like every God's just predetermined everything, and we're just along for the ride, we're just like white knuckling this roller coaster ride, is that someone gets saved, and then they just walk around with this all their life and never open it. And actually sometimes they're kind of like, wow, this is this is this is so annoying, like this idea that God has something for me to accomplish or do in my life, because I really it's it's annoying, but it follows me. I I realize this thing is following me around everywhere in life, but sometimes it gets in the way of what I actually want to do. Because the will of God becomes annoying to me, because I don't want to submit to that. I just want the destination, but I don't actually want to go to the energy, the courage, the strength that it takes to unpack this with God. And so now it's just it's just annoying. I just want to jump in and have God say, well done, you know, come on in, but I don't actually believe I can be made into the image and likeness of Jesus Christ. I don't believe that I can be justified. I don't believe these blessings that are in here are mine to receive. And also note that everything he talks about as far as predestined and chosen, all of them are positive things. I'm also, this is a whole probably a whole nother sermon series, but just be cautious of the things that you say. Yeah, God predetermined me to just have all this depression and pain and suffering and trauma, and he's predestined that. I don't see anywhere in that scripture that we've been reading that any of that is something that God's like, yeah, pre-packed in here, it's cancer for you, and and destruction and death, and you know, those that those people are gonna traumatize you and things are gonna get done to you as a kid that you know you never chose, but you know, it's just part of the package. No, healing is in here, joy is in here, peace is in here. Those are so opposite of what the world has to give you. And so we need to be careful that we don't start thinking that in this bag, like maybe we're gonna put our hand in here someday and it's just gonna be a snake or a scorpion, right? Like that's what Jesus said. What father among you, if his kids were to ask for bread, would give them a snake? That's he's talking about this bag of predestined, like what he has for you if you want to unpack it. Now, there are areas of where We do take from this and it's good, but it can be challenging. And but then there are times where we get into our own way of doing things, and we're not necessarily abiding in the sense of hearing from the Lord and responding to his goodness and love. That we can get confused if we're maybe maybe God's predestined this, but I don't really know. It's, I would say it's not about getting it all right, but it's about trusting in the goodness of God over top of your own experiences, disappointments, brokenness, pain, and everything else that this world tries to stick into you like an arrow. But this is exciting, right? Like we can think that God has stuff predetermined for us if we'll walk in His will, that we'll get released through our life to bless others, become a fruit to those around us. And I know that there are times in life where some of that seems so irrelevant because we're just trying to get by. We're just trying to make it work. And I get that. But if we lose sight of this, we start to just labor in our own strength. We will forfeit the promises of God for the current pain alleviators of the moment. We will come into situations where we don't understand the outcome, and we'll have to choose either God is good and He has good for us, or we'll just kind of drag this around and trip over our whole lives because it's just inconvenient. And it's too hard to believe for the goodness of God, or what I talked about last week, the impending feeling of blessing. It's too hard to train yourself to live like that. So just live like the rest of the world while the promises of God just kind of drag behind us what He has for our lives. Okay. So predestined, again, in my opinion and belief, has to do with all the good works, blessings, plans, and desires God has for our lives and has prepared for us according to the good pleasure of his will. Now, I believe we can reject or choose not to live out the will of God for our lives. I believe we can sell out or reject things God has for us. The same as in salvation, it's an ongoing choice. To submit to the will of God or to go our own way. The weight of responsibility is still on us. But thank God he has given us this Holy Spirit, who is not only the power of God, but the counselor from God to lead us and guide us in this life. And as we submit, as we grow in that union and relationship with Him, we can be guided to unpack this bag for the rest of our lives. And that, my friend, is counterintuitive to religion, it's counterintuitive to this world, but I believe it is the reality of the kingdom of God and what he has for each one of us. So with that, I will close. Thank you, Jesus, for the revelation of Jesus Christ and for the healing power of your word, and that you bring us to points of recalibration, of resetting our course. And Lord, today I pray that as you speak to each one of us, that you'll just recalibrate the compass of our lives, of our thoughts, that we would set our gaze and our mind upon you. That we would not be in this life just for ourselves, or this idea of whatever you've blessed us with, that's what we want, but we're not going to be a fountain, we're just going to be a dream. Pray that we begin to confess those things where we've done that. And to turn to you and say, Lord, if these are the things you have for my life, if this sermon is true, then I want that. I want to be a fountain. I want to be one who lives out of your predestined these good things that you have for me to walk in and to reveal to others. And so, Lord, I just pray, like even for myself, Lord, I confess that there's ways that I limit you, that I have not fully lived this out. But I thank you, God, through your grace. That does not exclude me and that. Lord, I want to further unpack what you have for me, and that this life, Lord, be unto you and be a source of joy to not only you, but others. And I thank you for this community, this people, and most of all for your son Jesus Christ. Jesus, amen.