Love Does: Love Chooses

One of the greatest feelings in the world is toknow that you have been chosen. Do you remember playground games at school? Everyone would line up, and it was usually the two most popular kids who did the choosing. And so you waited to be chosen.  If you were athletic or a friend of the chooser, you usually got chosen pretty quick, but if not, then you found yourself wishing to avoid the humiliation of being the last one picked, or even worse – being the odd man out.  No one likes to be excluded, everyone wants to be wanted – so it feels great when someone calls your name and says, “You’re with us.”  It feels great when you enter a room, and someone calls your name and says, “Come sit with us.”  What doesn’t feel so great is when you enter a room and no one notices you, no one calls your name, no one includes you.  Everyone of us wants to be wanted.  When you know are wanted, you know you are loved. So choosing to include others, inviting outsiders in, letting people know they are wanted – that’s what love does. Love Chooses.

And this morning, we are going to look at the miracle of God’s choosing us from the New Testament letter of Ephesians.  So if you brought your Bible with you today, let me encourage you to open them to Ephesians 1:3-6, where we will see how choosing to love others is one of the best ways to unleash God’s love in our world today.

God shows us at least three ways love choses.  And the first is this: 1. God Chose to Give Us Every Spiritual Blessing in Christ   Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Ephesians 1:3

This is one of the more profound statements in all the Bible of God’s abundant grace to us.  God chose to give you and me every spiritual blessing in Christ. He didn’t chose to give us some blessings and hold back others for a later time.  No, the moment you put your trust in Jesus, God opened the spiritual vault in the heavenly realms and gave you every spiritual blessing that He had to give.

And what I love about God’s abundant generosity of blessing us in Christ is this: What God does comes out of who God is!   And since God is love and God is generous, He is lavish in His blessings upon us.  He is not stingy in His love for us.  He blesses us beyond our wildest imaginations in Christ.  He opens the spiritual vault and gives us the best; and gives us all in Christ.  Now, before we unpack all that He blesses us with in Christ, we need to take note of this truth: What God does comes out of who God is!

Because what is true about God is also true about us.  What we do comes out of who we are.  So if we are going really love like God does… then we need to first embrace ALL the love God has for us.  When we are full of God’s love, then we can love out of God’s love.  And ALL the love God has for us begins with this spiritual transaction that takes place the moment we believe.  At the moment we believe in Jesus, we were united with Christ’s life! Paul says it this way:  We were therefore buried withhim through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.  Romans 6:4-5

When you believed in Jesus you were baptized into Jesus; spiritually immersed into His body, you were spiritually united with His life, death, and resurrection.  You died with Christ, were buried with Christ and rose to new life with Christ.  You are now a new creation in Christ.  The resurrected Jesus lives in you by His Spirit. This is the great mystery of the Christian faith.  Christ in you, the hope of glory.

This means you have a new identity. You are in Christ, a Christian, a little Christ. And that means you can now love out of that identity. But there’s more.  Now every spiritual blessing that belongs to Jesus also belongs to you. God holds nothing back.  That’s what love does. So what are those spiritual blessings He has so generously blessed us with.  Here’s just some of them:

• You are now God’s Child because you have been adopted through Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:5)
• You have forgiveness of sins in Christ (Ephesians 1:7)
• You have access into theFather’s presence at any time (Ephesians 2:18; Hebrews 4:16)
• You have reconciliation with God through Jesus (Colossians 1:20)
• You have been made rightwith God (Romans 5:1)
• You now have the wisdom and righteousness of Christ (1 Corinthians 1:27-30)
• You are now alive to God in Christ(Romans 6:11)
• You can grow in the knowledge of God through Christ (Ephesians 1:17)
• You have eternal life nowand forever in Christ (Romans 6:23; John 5:24)
• You have been redeemed to a new life of freedom with Christ (Galatians 5:1)
• You are free from condemnationin Christ (Romans 8:1)
• You are now free from the law in Christ (Romans 8:2)
• You are now free from fear in thelove of Christ (1 John 4:18)
• You are now free to serve one another in love through Christ (Galatians 5:13)
• You have securityof salvation in Christ (Eph. 1:13-14)
• You will never be separated from God’s love in Christ (Romans 8:39)
• You have been delivered fromthe power of darkness in Christ (Colossians 1:13)
• You have been brought into the kingdom of the Son (Colossians 1:13)
• You will always be part of God’sfamily (Rom. 12:5; Eph. 2:19)
• You are now a heavenly citizen in Christ (Ephesians 2:19)
• You have a new nature inChrist (2 Corinthians 5:17)
• You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special people in Christ (1 Peter 2:9)
• You are born of the Spirit(John 3:16), baptized by the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13), sealed by the Spirit (2 Corinthians 1:22), filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18) and are now able to bear the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) because you are indwelt by the Spirit of Christ (Galatians 4:6)
• You are now complete inevery way in Christ (Colossians 2:9-10)
• You are now glorified in Christ (Romans 8:30)

God chose to give you every spiritual blessing in Christ. That’s what love does.  Love chooses to give to us abundantly beyond what we earn or deserve.

Think about that when it comes to loving people.  Love chooses to love by blessing someone above and beyond what that person deserves.  But human nature tends to work the opposite.  We give love if we feel you are deserving or if you earned it.  But that is not how God loves us.  He loves us even when we are undeserving.  He pours out blessing upon blessing upon us. That’s why Paul wrote: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

And now the best way we can praise God is to bless others the same way He blessed us – above and beyond what they deserve.  And that means being generous with our love.  Being generous with our time, being generous with our affection, being generous with our attention, being generous with our lives. This is what I want to see God change in me, and change in us.  Just imagine what God could do through us if we grew in our generosity toward one another in love.  That’s what God had in mind when He chose to bless us.  He chose to bless us so we might be a blessing. That’s what love does.  God chooses to bless us abundantly and graciously in Christ!

But that’s just one way He chooses to love us.  Here’s the next way: 2. God Chose to Make Us Beautiful in His Presence For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. Ephesians 1:4 How much does God love you? Before one star was hung in the heavens, God was thinking about you. The text says it this way: “He chose us in him before the creation of the world” This is, in and of itself, a mind-blowing concept!  Sometime before anything was created, long before you drew your first breath, God chose you to be in Christ – but with this purpose:  to be holy and blameless in His sight.  This was God’s dream to have us to become His beautiful bride and one day stand in His presence in all our beauty.

Now, what’s so cool about this word “chose” is the grammar behind it.  It’s in the middle voice.  What does that mean?  It means that God’s choosing was a totally independent choice.  He not only chose by Himself, but for Himself.  This means that the choice He made for you to be with Him was not just for your benefit but for His benefit.  He chose you for Himself.  God wanted you to be with Him for all eternity.He’s always wanted you to be with Him!!!

To put it another way, God’s first thoughts of you were birthed in love.  At its core, love is a choice. Love is a choice to do what is best for another regardless of the cost or consequences to oneself.  So God decided the best thing He could do for you, was to unite you with Christ and in so doing made it possible for you to have an intimate relationship with Him.  God chose you in Christ so you can know God as your Father, and He can know you as His beloved child.  Here’s the shattering truth of God’s love for you: There has never been a time when you were not the object of His love!

Let that sink in.  There’s never been a time when you were not the object of His love. Now it begins to make sense why God would send His only Son to die for you. He loved you so much that He chose to do for you what you could not do for yourself – to die for you, forgive you and make you holy and blameless so He could bring you into relationship with Him!   And if He loved you that much then, how much more do you think He still loves you today?  God does not change.  He still loves you no matter what you’ve done, who you’ve hurt, or how much you’ve messed up your life.  You are still in His thoughts.  He still wants you.  That’s why He is patient with you, gracious with you and merciful to you.  He wants what is best for you, so you will be with Him.  For that’s what love does.  Love chooses.

And there’s one more choice that God made that secures His love for us, and that is this: 3. God Chose to Make Us His Very Own Children  In love he predestined us for adoption to Sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will —to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.  Ephesians 1:5-6  You could say it this way: You’ve always been the delight of the Father’s heart!  God chose you out of His good pleasure and will to make you His very own child. Nothing gave God greater joy then to make you part of His forever family. Let this truth sink in.  Let this truth capture your heart.  In the very center of God’s heart there has always been a desire to bring you into the most intimate relationship possible with Him.  That’s why when you believe in Jesus you are immediately adopted into His family.  And once you are adopted, nothing can ever separate you from His love.  That’s why God is always for you, never against you. That’s why God will never leave you nor forsake you.  You are His beloved.  And that truth, your identity as God’s child, is sealed in the eternal council of His will. And God does not change His will.

God chooses you for Himself. God adopted you for His very own. You are His beloved.  Your sonship is a lock. Your relationship with God is secure. You are now and forever the apple of His eye.   That’s why Paul writes in Romans 8, So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves.  Instead,you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children.  Now we call him, “Abba Father.”  Romans 8:15

Listen to how Brennan Manning states this: “Being the belovedis our identity, the core of our existence.  It is not merely a lofty thought, an inspiring idea, or a name among many.  It is the name by which God knows us and the way He relates to us.”  – Brennan Manning You are His beloved, the apple of His eye!

This is what Love Does. Love chooses.  And God’s choice of you doesn’t get any better than this:  Out of His love, God chose you to be His very own.

Do you understand how this is a game changer when it comes to us doing love?  If we live as His beloved, knowing that He is always for us, knowing that we are always loved no matter how we might fail Him… this will do something in us!  It will give us confidence to face anything.  It will give us security in an uncertain world.  And it will help you love the unlovely, love the difficult, and even love your enemies.  This is the kind of love that will transform you, your relationships and even our world.

If we are going to unleash love; if we are going to be a people who love like God, then we must first learn to rest in the love of God, as His beloved.  Will you do that today?

It all comes down to faith.  We are called to live by faith with the God who loves us.

Will you believe God has blessed you with every spiritual blessing in Christ? Will you learn these blessings and live in these blessings?

Will you believe God has always wanted you to be with Him?  Perhaps for some of you, that means returning to the God who loves you, even today.

Will you rest in the confidence of your new identity as the beloved, knowing that your Heavenly Father is always for you and nothing can ever separate you from His love?

If you will, then you will become a person who can’t help but love others– for you will begin to love like God does.  You will choose to love like God loves you.