Called and chosen - our DNA in Christ | Navaz D

This message was preached by Navaz at Word of Grace Church on August 4th, 2019. To listen/download the audio please click here. To listen to the Sunday's worship and prophetic contributions please click here

Ephesians 1:3-5

 ⁴ For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love ⁵ he^[b] predestined us for adoption to son ship^[c]through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—

AMP VERSION

 ⁴ just as [in His love] He chose us in Christ [actually selected us for Himself as His own] before the foundation of the world, so that we would be holy [that is, consecrated, set apart for Him, purpose-driven] and blameless in His sight. In love ⁵ He predestined and lovingly planned for us to be adopted to Himself as [His own] children through Jesus Christ, in accordance with the kind intention and good pleasure of His will—

This is not a complete exegesis of the text rather a pulling on the main thoughts on this passage and looking at how it applies to us.

We are going to look at How and why we have been called, and what implications does our new DNA in Christ have on how we live.

VERSE4a     For HE chose us

Our salvation story starts in Jesus. He selected us before we were even thought of by our parents. He decided we would be born and on the day we would become His. In His loving-kindness, He drew us to repentance Rom 2:4.

Yes, we responded. We have a responsibility to respond to the call. Predestination is a huge topic and a difficult one I do not want to get into. 

There are many passages in scripture to support this. No one comes to the Father except through Jesus. You did not choose me but I chose you. Those whom he called, He justified and so on. We do not understand it fully.

The point I am getting at is this. Rejoice in the truth that God chose YOU. Thank God for this great salvation given to us as a gift.

When we received Christ, God became our Father.

Our life as a Christ-follower starts and ends with God at the center of our very being. We are “in Christ”. Where is Jesus right now? At the right hand of the Father. So if we are in Christ, we too are seated in heavenly places in Christ.

We are blessed and have access to unlimited divine favour because we belong to Him

.

Some of us Christians live like this: Thank you God for this gift. Now let me prove to you that I deserve it. You get saved by grace and then you get into religious graceless faithless works trying to win God’s favour that you already have.

A true son does not work to win favor with his father, he works hard because he is loved and his hard work is a response to love not for love.   Do you see the difference?

Paul says in Col1:10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,

VERSE 4b- To be holy and blameless in His sight

The question of purpose is answered here. Why did God choose us?

In the amplified version it says – consecrated, set apart for Him, purpose-driven. Blameless is our standing. Jesus paid the debt for our guilt so that we can live shame-free, blame-free lives. This is huge.

VERSE 5- In love, he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ. NEW IDENTITY

This brings me to the realization that before Christ’s death on the cross I was not a child of God! God is not everyone’s Father. Not anyone can call him Father.

John 1:11-12 – He came to that, which was His own, but they did not receive Him, yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

Paul is laying a great foundation for us to understand our new identity in Christ. This is who we are. We are sons and daughters of God. We can call Him Father.

2 Cor 5:17 says: Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” we are new creations in Christ.

New= never before created. You are one of a kind image-bearer of God. No one gets to be you.

 We have a new DNA, that of Christ. DIVINE NATURE ACTIVATED

DO not make the mistake of calling yourself a Sinner. That is no longer your identity. You were a sinner before you knew Jesus. You are now a Saint. You were an orphan, you are now a child of God. When you sin, you sin as a saint. It does not alter your identity.

Something miraculously alters in our very being. We now have the mind of Christ but we just do not tap into it.

We renew this mind by washing it with the Word of God 

When we attempt to change without the heart and mind transformation, we only have behavior modification that cannot be sustained for a long period. That is why some of us fall back into old patterns of behavior and thinking.

Some of us try living the Christian life under the bondage of religious duty and not from a place of relationship and delight in the Father. WE fall back into law instead of living out of grace.

We focus too much on what we ought not to do instead of focusing what the great Hope and calling we have

Today I want us to look at our Sonship in God.

In order to know the truth, you study the truth first, and then you look can spot the lie.

So let’s look at some truths about us today that are a part of our DNA as children of God.

SO WHAT DOES THIS NEW IDENTITY AND DNA GIVE US?

1.    GOD is your Father.Do you know and believe that he is truly a good, good Father?

The starting point of knowing who we are is knowing whose we are.

2.   The Supernatural is our new nature. We need to know that we live from a place of victory, therefore, nothing is impossible for us with God. So I can take leaps of faith.

 Jesus conquered everything on the cross. Therefore, I can dream big because God’s assignment for us is huge and encompasses all of our lives.

2b - I can trust God because He is good and can do the impossible, and all His promises are “Yes and Amen”!.

My new identity gives me access to all the spiritual blessings.

Its all in my account but not yet in my possession. ( Bill Johnson)

 I have to cash the cheque so that I can use that favour of access to be a blessing to others and fulfill God’s mandate for me on this EARTH.

When we realize how much we have access to, it increases our responsibility because to whom much is given much is required.

3.   He chose me, therefore, I am significant not in an arrogant self-obsessed way. I am significant to God’s plans and purposes

He has chosen us in order that the earth is filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord even as the waters cover the sea.

How you may ask? you and I as we are being changed from one degree of glory to another. Glory – we are meant to share in His glory and bear His glory. Imagine that!!!

If we realized this, we would not indulge in some of the things we do.

4.   Your identity as a son and daughter is covered in Royalty. You are a Prince/princess.

One thing the devil really trembles at is when Sons of God come into their full identity, operate in that anointing, and power.

He wants to keep you from fulfilling your purpose and destiny in life. HE wants to set us free, from shackled thinking and a wrong identity.

1 Pet 2:9 – 10 We are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation.

 A good King and royalty live for the benefit of their subjects. Our King Jesus laid down his life for us so that we could enjoy unlimited favour. 

We are blessed to be a blessing. We have favour in order to use it to bring blessing to others.

Therefore, since we know that we have a good God who can do the impossible because of the finished work of the Cross-we can take leaps of faith and serve him whole-heartedly, faithfully and diligently as sons and not as orphans or hirelings.

An orphan or hirelings in last in and first out. They do not care about their Father’s business but only look out for themselves.

When you have understood your place and identity as a son in the house of God, you will take on responsibilities with joy just as Jesus did. He laid down his life for his friends for the JOY set before him.

When we live in the goodness of our identity in Christ, we become a light to the world around us.

When we live in the awareness of the significance of God’s choosing of us,  that he has invested into us when He put the holy spirit inside of us; we will carry ourselves differently and conduct ourselves differently. You will not get involved with potty stuff.

There will be a shift from living a life to please me to living a life of service. Just like our Servant King, Jesus; knowing the Father has placed everything beneath him, He could serve with a towel and basin.

First, do you see yourself as a son or do you behave as an orphan or a hireling?

Do you know who you are and what you are called to and that you are chosen by God? Are you living out of your new DNA?

We will look more into this the next time.

Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again),  Spirit-filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that has people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service.  Word of Grace is a part of a wider international family of Churches called RegionsBeyond.To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org. 

The Effective Call | Chris B

This message was preached  by Chris B at Word of Grace Church on May 28th, 2017. To listen/download the audio please click here. To listen to the Sunday's worship and prophetic contributions please click here.

Before I jump in to anything else, I need to share a challenging story. My wife asked me to take care of the kids for a day, both of whom are mobile. There was an incident when I was supposed to take the kids out and we had an incident with the lift. I called my son to come out of the lift and he did not come, so he got stuck. Then we retrieved him and it was ok. But there was something wrong with my calling. God’s calling is not like our calling. When he calls us, we cannot say no.

This morning we will be in Jude. The greetings in the epistles can be so helpful. We often skip through them. Today we will see that every bit of God’s word has unbelievable value to us.

Jude 1-2 “Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ”

Jude identifies himself as the servant of Jesus. James was the brother of the Lord. So Jude is also a brother of Jesus, but he doesn’t even bring it up. Our primary identity is not biological, it is spiritual.

This has a lot of implications for us. If you were born in an important family, it is easy to think that your identity comes from that high standing. Jude’s emphasis is not on brother of the Lord,  but servant of the Lord. On the other hand, if you come from a shameful family, the shame of that can be significant. I have liberating news for you, that’s not your identity. All of us have the opportunity to have the same mindset as Jude. The scripture tells us that the greatest is the one who is a servant of all.

 Q. What does it mean to be called by God?

Romans 8:30- “And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”

God the Father, before creation, knew and loved his children. He called them, justified and glorified them. These are all in the past tense because they are so certain that they have already taken place. It is unshakable and unchanging.

1.      We are loved by God the Father- before the ages began, he created you to love you and then redeemed you to love you. Before he said let there be light, he said let there be Chris.

2.      We are kept for Jesus Christ—when something originates in the mind of God, Jesus accomplishes it. The doctrine of Salvation is an example of that. We are his treasured possession, his Bride. As we are waiting for Jesus to return, God gave us the Spirit as a seal until the return.

Q. Have you ever been concerned that you would lose your salvation?

Know that we are kept.

May mercy, peace and love be multiplied- what does that mean?

In the midst of chaos and difficulty, we experience God’s mercy, peace and love. That is what we pray for.

Q. How are we called?

I used my voice to call my son. But according to 2 Thess 2:14- “To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

We were called through the power of the gospel. The truth that Jesus has borne your sins and have resurrected from the dead and is now the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. That is what called us to salvation. 

Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again),  Spirit filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that have people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service. To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org.  

SHARPEN 2016 | Being faithful to His call & vision - Franco Lonnapan.

This message was preached at the RegionsBeyond India Leadership conference 2016.

This message was preached by Franco Lonnapan who leades Onenation church Mumbai.

For the audio please click here

God wants to make us people who are encouraged.

Eccl 10:10- “If the ax is dull and its edge unsharpened, more strength is needed, but skill will bring success.”

When the axe is sharpened we will see success. This is going to be time of sharpening our spiritual axes, and increasing our effectiveness in God’s kingdom. We are going to be motivated by each of the sessions.

The topic- Being faithful to his call and vision

In the book of Kings there is a story. There are so many things to distract us these days.

2 kings 16: 10- 15: model of the pattern in all of its details.

King Ahaz is faced with a battle against his own brothers- the king of Israel and a group of other kingdoms. So he makes a treaty with the king of Assyria. He sees this amazing altar in Damascus and ordered Uraiah the priest to make an exact copy. Uriah does it. Ahaz completely lost it towards the end of his life. He lost the vision. The high priest had lost the vision. The king and priest missed the call of God, and fancied the worship of other gods. In a place where God dwelt by his spirit, where the whole world was looking to, a hope of the nations, and where people come to worship God-

4 aspects or non-negotiable as Christians and church leaders:

1.      The call of God: knowing that God has called you is the starting point. Ahaz was anointed to be the King of Judah. Maybe by birth he knew, or at the coronation ceremony- he ought to have known that he was called. But somewhere, he forgot that. Even the priest was called to honour the worship of God. He was called to minister to God. But here they just lost the call of God.

Q. Why?

Was it the pressure to succeed, desire to please man, be famous or victorious? Today there are tremendous pressures as church leaders to succeed, to perform- other than to pursue the call of God. When we see other churches growing in large numbers, we want to find out the formula.

This is also in our personal lives. That is why we have to go back to God and say, God, you have called me.

Peter and John’s encounter with Jesus changed their lives. Moses, Paul, they were all changed when they encountered God. God has called us, not man. We have encountered God and that changed our lives. Nothing else will keep us in the kingdom of God, except the call of God.

Knowing God’s call satisfies you. At this one prayer meeting, I knew clearly that God had called me.

It’s the call of God that will keep us.

In Gal 1:1 Paul refers to himself as called of God!!! God will keep reminding you of the call, again and again. If Jesus had to hear it again and again, we do too. God is faithful to keep speaking to us, to reassure us of the call on our lives.

The call of God backs us.

2.      Vision for life: Ahaz was supposed to represent the king of heaven. The priest was supposed to bring down God’s presence. They lost the vision for their lives. They were fascinated by other gods. Peter, John and James were told- I will make you fishers of men. They left everything for this. That vision was so captivating. Jesus had a vision. John 17:4- “I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do”

We need to be clear for what God has called us, what has he called us to be and do.  But be clear that it’ll be tested by fire.

Q. What is the vision that God wants you to achieve? What is the vision he has given you?

Peter and Paul were called to be apostles, but the call of Peter was different from Paul’s. Peter to Jews and Paul to gentiles. Their visions were different.

When God calls, he will give us a vision. He doesn’t call us into obscurity, but to achieve something for him. We live in a land where we want to do hero- worship. But we need to ask God, what do you want me to do? All of us have to answer that question.

Overcoming your shadowed vision- everyone has a vision and a shadow vision. There is a vision that God gives us, and there is a vision that we have for ourselves.

Having success for the sake of success is one of the biggest shadow vision. I was like that. I did things to please man, wanting to have success for the sake of success. We need to succeed so that he may be glorified.

Q. Why do I want my church to grow, to see healings, and miracles?

Not for the sake of success- we need to do it with a purpose.

In 2008-09 was the worst time of my life. A lot of people left the church, and I had to answer before God. It was well! 26 April 2009 was the last straw.  In Gen 37- Joseph had a dream- hold on to the promises . God told me to take a paper and write. Things turned around. God doesn’t want to us to take.

Jesus could have been a leader without the suffering. That’s what Satan was offering him. But he chose not to lose vision of what he was called to do.

Let’s be people with a vision. We have come as individual churches, but God will give us a vision together.  

The Christian's call | Gary W

This message was preached  by Gary Welsh at Word of Grace Church on October 2nd, 2016. To listen/download the audio please click here. To listen to the Sunday's worship and prophetic contributions please click here

Scripture reference- Colossians 1:1-14

Paul is writing to the churches in now modern Turkey. This is a new church plant and he wants to keep them on track. The summary would be that Jesus is enough. It's all about Jesus. Saved through him, changed through him and glorified through him. Jesus working in will change us.

Paul was in Prison when he wrote this letter. Our circumstances might change but not Jesus. You may look at your own situation and the nation and wonder what's going on, where will it end?

We need to pray for our government, but more than that, we need dynamic storing churches living in the power of Jesus Christ and proclaiming the kingdom. All these things make us wake up to prayer.

Some of us have difficulties in our own personal lives. The answer is still Jesus and that we have to live for Jesus. This is the gospel. The King of glory died for me. It's not philosophy, better laws and justice. It's Jesus.

1.      It’s a call to God’s people:

Paul is praying that they will be filled with the knowledge of his will in our lives.

Verse 13 says- “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves”

Followers of Jesus should know His will in order that we will express the truth of Jesus in our lives. Paul is now writing to people whose lives have been dramatically changed by Jesus and should live as such. It’s not a self help group.

Not everything is broken in the world. See the Taj Mahal! But there is brokenness everywhere.

Romans 1: 21- “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.” Brokenness is a default setting.

Q. Which kingdom are you in? Light or darkness?

This is a very important question. The world thinks this is a rude question but this is the truth. You may be a nice person but that is not enough. You stand before God and cast yourself on God's mercy. Don't do a ritual. Either this is true for you or not.

2.      It's a call to know the will of God.

Q. How do we know this?

I can know what God is doing on the planet right now. That is amazing! We can know his desires, intentions etc. It's amazing that we could. This is important so that we will produce fruit in our lives. So that we will look like who God's people should look like. And God gets the glory.

3.    What can we do that will help us?

·        It is Jesus plus nothing. Paul is emphasizing this. No man made regulations. No new philosophy. If we want to know the will of God we need to know Jesus fully. As Paul went around churches they did not leave books of instructions. They trusted the work of the Holy Spirit to glorify Jesus and show his works. Jesus told the disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit. If you want to know what God is doing you need to be full of the Holy Spirit. This should be our daily prayer.

·        Scripture- This is important to keep wrong things outside the church. We have a record of Jesus’ life. That's why this book is written. That's why we don't sacrifice animals anymore. The Old Testament was all about Jesus. Knowing and understanding Jesus means we should know our Bibles. This generation does not read anymore. We need to get into the scriptures and ask the holy Spirit for understanding. If you want a plumb line about whether you know Jesus and the scriptures it's love. We need to love each other.

·        Community. God is about community. He is gathering a people to himself. Paul expected husband and wives to be in the same place, children to be in the same place and masters and slaves to be in the same place of worship.

Luke 24:27- “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” This is the only context you get both on the same place. We need to learn to follow Jesus together. Otherwise we can just be in on a Sunday meeting and no one shaping you, speaking into your life. Bearing with each other happens as you do life together. We do all this in community.

In Galatians Paul says that all the law is reduced to this: You’d think he will say love God. But he says love your neighbour as yourself.  

Q. Do you know Jesus?

Q. If you are a follower of Jesus are we getting to know him?

If you are stuck, get into community. Where you can belong and not a church you just attend.

Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again),  Spirit filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that have people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service. To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org.