You Are Wanted

Well, good morning, everybody. My name's René, another one of the pastors here at Twin Lakes Church. I am so glad to be with you today. And I just have to tell you, I really, really love this church so much. I mean, I just love church in general, but I love this church so much.

But let me tell you—why can I just tell you specifically a couple of reasons why I just love our church? That song that we just sang, "Bestill My Soul," that was such a beautiful song. And you know, that was written by two of our pastors, Trent and Elizabeth. They wrote that song. And it's such a privilege to be in a church where pastors are writing music and just expressing their joy to the Lord that way. I just love that song so much.

And also, I love the way you as a church step up to help people in need. And let me just give you a couple of examples, because I just got these video thank yous from a couple of churches that we've helped out. You might remember that the first African Methodist Episcopal Church in Oakland a couple of weeks ago was nearly destroyed by a terrible fire. And it's quite a loss because this is the first and oldest historically black congregation in Oakland. The church was nearly destroyed. In fact, the interior of the church was absolutely gutted. The only thing that remains is the outside walls of the church, which they don't even know yet how strong they are.

And so we reached out, along with, of course, other churches in the Bay Area. And we just said, hey, listen, we want to help you out. And one of the things this came out of is pastors from a variety of different denominations now are meeting together just to support each other in prayer. I had a chance to get to know the pastor there just a few months ago at a pastor's retreat here in Mission Springs.

So Twin Lakes Church has a disaster relief fund that you all help support. Why? Well, because we were the recipients of so many churches' generosity during the CZU fires. And years before that, after the earthquake, so we figured we want to always have a fund available to when we see a need like this. We don't have to raise money for it. We just have a reserve fund that we can just reach out and instantly say, hey, we are there for you.

So we sent some funds to help them. They have to rent facilities, of course, while they see if they can rebuild. And we just got this video thank you to you from their pastor. Watch this. I am so overwhelmed. First, let me say thank you to all of you, all of these great leaders. We have broken bread together. We are lifting up the name of Jesus. And I want to personally thank you for stepping up to the plate. First, Ami is very grateful to receive such a great blessing. Thank you again from the bottom of our hearts.

Yeah, so I hope you sense that appreciation from First, Ami in Oakland. And then there's another sister church, the Salvation Army in Watsonville. We've been partnering with them to help out the flood victims, the terrible, terrible floods down at Pajaro. And we've been partnering with them partly because—I don't know if you know this, but you hear about state funds and FEMA funds being made available for the Pajaro flood victims. However, by law, none of those funds can be used to assist people who are undocumented. And most of the people there were undocumented.

And so the only way to help them is through churches. And so we're able to participate with the Salvation Army to get them food and to get them shelter, because of course, we don't have that restriction on our gifts. And we've been able to help so many people. And their pastor down there just sent us this thank you on Friday. So here she is. My name is Lieutenant Nayeli Mercado. I'm a current officer and a pastor of the Salvation Army in Watsonville. Personally, I want to thank you for your big heart. When I received the email, then there was a possibility of donation from Twin Lakes Church. It was a confirmation for me for what I already knew, that God always provided. Thank you, family. God bless you.

So thank you guys so, so much. As the Bible says, helping the immigrants and the poor wanderer, that's part of God's heart. That's all throughout scripture. So thank you. You're doing that. And I want to thank you for your support of Twin Lakes. It not only keeps the lights on, but it really helps us. It enables us to do things like that, too. In fact, why don't we pray for those two churches in the communities they serve right now? Would you pray with me?

Heavenly Father, we just want to lift up First AME Oakland and also Salvation Army Watsonville, two sister churches of ours. We received so much support from other Bay Area churches during the CZU fires. And it's such a privilege to be in a position now where we can help others who find themselves in need. And we want to not just be donors, we want to be participants, partners with these churches as they rebuild and help people rebuild their lives. And so God, give them strength, give them discernment, give them wisdom. And I pray especially for these pastors that you would help them lead people spiritually and that your name would be glorified, even through these disasters. I know that's going to happen because I've seen it happen over and over and over again as the song says. And we pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.

Well, grab your message notes. Your True Self is the series that we are kicking off this weekend. And if you're joining us on the live stream, you can download those at tlc.org/notes. And let me start with this. One of the most important questions, one of the most human questions, one of the most common questions that people can ask is this: who am I? In a word, what is my identity? That's a question people ask across cultures.

Now, these days, I'm worried that this very, very important question has sort of been almost minimized. Here's what I'm talking about. These days, we tend to tie our identity to politics, nationality, ethnicity, gender, sexual expression, religion, blue state, red state, ways to define our identity in terms that almost pull us apart rather than bringing us together. Why is that happening? Well, historians say in times of social upheaval like ours, the search for identity becomes more and more urgent and acute because we see society fracturing. And we see all these warring camps, and we tend to feel scared and disoriented. And we kind of want to know, well, which one do I belong to? What is my tribe, my flag, my group?

In fact, let me ask you, how do you complete this sentence? I am fill in the blank. I mean, you don't have to shout it out, but just kind of think about it. What's the first thing that tends to come to your mind? Maybe I am conservative. I am progressive. I am young. I am old. I'm a new parent. I'm retired. I am American. I am black, white, Hispanic. I am married. I am single. I'm a success. I'm a failure. I'm sad. I'm frustrated. All kinds of ways you can complete this sentence, but regardless of how you may fill in this blank at this moment in your life—and even as any of those things I mentioned may be completely true of you—did you know there is a source of identity that is deeper and more essential than any of those things I just mentioned?

There's a source of identity that actually can bring us together instead of making us divide into smaller and smaller and smaller groups and pull us apart. See, there's an important question tied to the question, who am I? And it's this: who says? Culture? Your family of origin? Your friends? Yourself? I mean, you hear a lot of voices these days say your identity is anything you say it is. OK, but isn't there something even deeper, more eternal, more real, more permanent than just my own opinion or your opinion about me or even my own feelings or emotions?

What I'm saying is, even though those other ways you identify yourself may be true, wouldn't you love to know that there is a source of identity that is not based in what others say about me or even what I say about me? There's a source of identity that's not based on my future accomplishments or my past. Failure is a source of identity that does not come from culture or politics or feelings or trends or circumstances or health. The point of this whole series is you can know my identity is what God says is true of me in Christ and that never changes. And if you stick with us in this series, I truly believe that it could change your life emotionally, psychologically, spiritually, tangibly, as each week we see more of your true self.

If you want kind of a relaxed, joyful confidence, if you want to go through life not worried about, wow, will my parents approve of this decision or will my friends approve of this or how careful do I have to be to gain people's approval and I feel like I can never measure up, if you want a relaxed, joyful confidence, listen to what God says is true of you.

Now this all ties into a great book called Discover Your True Self by Chip Ingram. I really love this book and in fact, Chip's going to be here next weekend to really dive into this book. Chip was a pastor for many years here at Santa Cruz Bible and he runs a ministry called Living on the Edge now and this is going to be really powerful. In fact, does anybody want a copy of this book? Let me just give this away right now. All right, Tamara, I see your hand. So here you go, everybody envious of Tamara, put your hands together and pretend you're happy for her right this second. Good, good.

Now what I want you to know is that both this series and Chip's book are not just based on psychology, not that there's anything wrong with that seriously. I've very much benefited from that in my own life. But what we're doing in this series and this book is we're taking insights from psychology but we're really brooding the book and the series in the first two chapters of the book of Ephesians in the Bible. So what I want to do is very quickly, like in 120 seconds, give you a super quick overview of that book of the Bible.

Ephesians is divided into three sections, six chapters. The first two chapters, and you see this chart in your notes, the Apostle Paul, the author, talks about your true self, your identity in Christ. And that's what we're going to be covering in this whole six-week series. The middle three chapters are about your true purpose, your mission from God. And when we're done with this first six-week series, we're gonna transition right into a six-week series on those three chapters. Then the final chapter, chapter six, is about your true battle. What's the war that you're, instead of fighting each other, let's fight the real enemy with the weapons of faith and the gospel, the good news, and of peace, and not fight each other, not fight with the weapons of this world, anger, division, and judgment.

And we're also going to be doing a whole six-week series on this. The three six-week series in a row, we're gonna be covering the whole book of Ephesians. And in each section, in each series, we're going to have a special guest speaker. As I said, next weekend, Chip Ingram. And then the second series, Isaac Serrano, a great pastor and professor at Western Seminary. And then for the final section, one of our favorites, Herman Hamilton, is going to be here to kick that off. Does that sound good to you? I'm really looking forward to this.

So by the end of the summer, we will have gone through the whole book of Ephesians. And here's what I love about this. If you are new to kind of like all this Christianity stuff, and you're like, you know what? People tell me to pick up the Bible and read it, I do not have the slightest clue what that even means. This is a great kind of entry into learning how to do that. 'Cause the Bible's made of 66 different books. Many of them, especially in the New Testament, were letters that early church people, early church leaders wrote to other Christians in the first century. And so you'll learn as we go through the book of Ephesians, which was a letter to very early Christians, you'll learn kind of historically how to understand it, and how to understand it in a way that inspires you, and helps you to inspire others. I am super excited about it.

So I wanna invite you all through the series, bring your Bible, because what's gonna happen is you're gonna find yourself wanting to circle words, and write in the margin of your Bible. And if you need a Bible, we have some paperback Bibles available for you for free at the info desk in the lobby. And if you'd like to pay a little bit more at our cost, we have some study Bibles available that have study notes that explain the historical background and the meaning of the words, so that we really, in the next five or six months, really learn how to dig into a book of the Bible. And when you learn these skills with this one example, you're gonna find the whole Bible just opening up to you. It's gonna be exciting.

Well, let me explain to you what the whole book of Ephesians is about as we start this mini-series, Your True Self, based on those first two chapters. The book of Ephesians was a letter written to Christians in the city of Ephesus. Now today, even in ruins, Ephesus, which is in modern-day Turkey, is spectacular. 2,000 years ago, it was amazing. It was wealthy, it was influential, powerful. The Apostle Paul, one of the earliest leaders of the Christian church, he lived there for two and a half years. And at first it went great, but eventually his teaching causes a riot in this very theater that still exists today, and he has to run for his life.

Well, a few years later, excuse me, about 61 A.D., he's in Rome, and he's in prison because he's been arrested, and he's waiting to appeal his case to Caesar. Bad news, the new Caesar is Nero, and Nero is sadistic and violent and manipulative, and he orchestrates a death campaign against Christians and against Jewish people, and basically exterminates or runs into exile all the Christians in the city of Rome. And sadly, both Paul and Peter are in prison during this time, and both of them are executed by the Roman government under Nero.

But before then, what's happening is all of this is starting to bubble up. Within three years, that's all going down, but this is now 61 A.D., and if you put your finger to the wind, you can feel the winds of change are blowing. People are starting to really get down on Christians, hate Christians, ostracize Christians, and Jews. Christians were seen as a subset of Jews in those days, so it's like anti-Christian, anti-Jew sentiment is growing, growing, growing. And so Paul is writing from prison in Rome to his old friends that he lived with for two and a half years to encourage them back in the city of Ephesus, where they're being marginalized and they're being persecuted, and it would have been so easy for those Christians to think, man, people used to think we were really something, and now I feel like I'm a nobody, and they could have responded with anger and despair and depression and fear.

And so Paul picks up his pen, and he writes to encourage them and to challenge them. He says, Paul, this is like the address of the letter. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, to God's holy people—they may be putting you down, but you're still God's holy people in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus, grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

And then in the next verse, verse three, Paul launches into what is the longest sentence in the New Testament in the original Greek language. It goes from verse three all the way to the end of verse 14. Excuse me, shouldn't have had that cappuccino between services. So it's a hymn of praise to God. Paul just starts saying one thing after another that is still true of the Ephesians, even though people are putting them down, even though somehow they've fallen from the favor of the people. He's like, let's just praise God because this is who you still are, and this is who you still are, and this is who you still are. He's just pumping them up, and then he gives them a mission.

And the first three truths that he gets into are so radical. They're so transformative that if you let them sink from here down to here, they will absolutely change your life starting today. So write these down. Number one, he says, I am lavishly blessed. Say that out loud with me. I am lavishly blessed. Look at this, he says, praise me to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Say every spiritual blessing aloud. Every spiritual blessing.

Now, what you wanna do when you're studying the book of the Bible is if you got a good study Bible, or if you just kinda go online, you look up what some words mean, like in the original Greek language, because sometimes it's not a one-on-one correlation in English, so I thought, wow, the word every is pretty important in this sentence, right? So I looked it up and I discovered that the Greek meaning is every, it means every single blessing. Not some, not most, not many. Every blessing that you can imagine the holiest person on some mountain top ever got, you got it right now.

Now, you might be thinking, oh, that's great that I have every spiritual blessing, but I would really appreciate right now, René, with some tangible blessings. What difference do spiritual blessings make to you? I want you to meet my wife's grandma, Grace. Here, Grandma Grace is at 100 years old. Doesn't she look amazing? I didn't look this good at 50. She's astonishing. So she lived to be 103, and Grandma Grace had a tough life. Grandma Grace, when she was 12 years old, her mom died, and that sent her dad into a spiral. He would leave the family for days and weeks at a time on alcoholic benders, so from the time she had just turned 12 until adulthood, she raised her younger siblings by herself. I mean, she cooked for them, she was a family breadwinner from the time she was 12 years old.

And as you can imagine, they lived in abject poverty, and she had many, many more challenges throughout her life, intense challenges. So I visit her, I will never forget the last time I ever saw her, she was 100, and she was in her bed at the care home, kind of just kind of resting. And so I come up to her and I say, "Hey Grandma Grace, how are you doing?" And she looks at me with her eyes just twinkling. She goes, "Oh, I'm blessed! I'm so blessed!" And I kind of smiled a little bit because I thought to myself, her eyesight was failing, and she had all kinds of aches and pains you could imagine. And most of her friends had all died and gone on to heaven before, so she'd been grieving, and grieving, and grieving for like the last 20 years of her life. And yet, this is her first response, and she meant it.

So I said, "Well Grandma Grace, what do you mean? What do you mean when you say that you're blessed?" And she just looks at me like, "Don't you know?" And she says, "I've been forgiven of all my sins, and I've been adopted by the creator of the world, the creator of the universe, and the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead." The Bible says, "I've got that same power in me, that Holy Spirit, and I'm guaranteed heaven, not by my own merit, but by..." And she just goes on and on and on, telling me, if you'll listen to that list, none of those things were a tangible blessing. They were all spiritual blessings that she was able to see with her eyes that nobody could see with physical eyes. Those awareness of those spiritual blessings was what gave her their spark. I mean, it's what kept her alive.

So you might be thinking, "That sounds really good. How do I get those kind of spiritual blessings? How do I get that kind of confidence?" The key is a phrase that Paul repeats over and over and over again, in Christ. Paul uses this phrase in Christ or in him 10 times in chapter one alone, verses four, six, seven, nine, 10, 12, 13, 17, 22, 23. I mean, that's pretty important if he's gonna repeat it that many times, right? He's saying, "If you've placed your faith and trust in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, all of these blessings are yours." Some of you are going, "I've heard that." Here's where Christians miss this. Many Christians think, "If I only worked harder, I'd get more blessings. If I was only a better Christian, I'd get more blessings. If I prayed more, read the Bible more, then God would answer my prayers. Then I'd be sure I'm going to, then I'd have certainty that I've got forgiveness." What Paul is saying is we do not serve a stingy God. He lavishes all these blessings on you, not based on your own merit. You simply accept the invitation when you receive and believe that you are in Christ. This is 100% true of you, so say this phrase out loud with me again. I am lavishly blessed. This week, repeat this phrase to yourself. It will make such a difference when you start to despair, when you start to think negative, and it just keeps getting better in Ephesians chapter one and two.

Number two, he says, "I am chosen by God." Say that out loud with me. "I am chosen by God." Verse four, "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight." Now, I looked up that word chose in the original Greek, but as I thought, the whole rest of the sentence hinges on that, and I discovered that the Greek meaning is chose. He picked you. He decided, and he decided in our favor. I mean, this is a remarkable truth. He said, "I choose you. I want you to be mine." And in case you think I'm tying too much meaning in one word, in the next verse, Paul doubles down on this. In love, he says, "God predestined us to be adopted as his children." We're gonna dig into that sentence in a minute, but this whole topic of choice, God's choice, predestination, has obviously been the source of endless debate, and I'm not gonna go over the whole debate today, but I will say this. The Bible teaches God chose us. And the Bible also teaches we choose him. How do you resolve those two things? Yep, we have free will to choose God or not. Yep, God absolutely chooses us based not on any merit of our own. How do you resolve those? I haven't the slightest idea.

In fact, if you look at the Bible, the Bible writers themselves never seem to feel the need to resolve this at all. They seem delighted to live in the mystery, to live in this beautiful tension. And the big reason I don't wanna get sidetracked into some debate about predestination versus free will here is that we would miss the whole point of this passage, which is to experience the joy and confidence that comes from knowing you are wanted by God. You are wanted by God not based on anything you've done, not based on anything you did to prove it or to earn it or to merit it. God picked you out of his will.

I used to hate PE at school, especially in elementary school. I was nearly two years younger than most of my classmates. And the difference physically between an eight-year-old and a 10-year-old is absolutely huge. And I wanna say it's even greater between boys and girls. The difference between the physical development of a 10-year-old girl and an eight-year-old boy, I mean, that's massive, right? So boy or girl, I was inevitably picked the very last for every team. I don't think they do it this way anymore, but in my day, it was like they'd pick team captains and the team captains would pick their teams. And I was always last. And if there was an odd number, like I was the odd man out, literally the two team captains would argue over who had to have me on their team. I'm not even joking. All the teams would be picked and I'd be standing there staring at my feet.

Well, maybe that's how you feel about life. Kinda like the world won't pick you because you're like not cool enough for them. And if you're really honest, you feel like you don't quite fit in with the church people either. They find you a little bit weird. And sometimes you suspect that even your family of origin wishes you were a little different. And so all the teams seem to be standing around you picked while you stand in the middle of the playground alone. Well, do you get this? God says, "I want you." I choose you. I love you. I pick you. And if you really look at this whole sentence, it gets even better because watch this. It says, "He chose us in him before." Now I looked up the word before because I thought it was important. It means before. Listen, before you could mess with it, before you could earn it, before you could tamper with it, before you could be disobedient, before you could be obedient, before you could be insensitive, before you could be calculating, before you could yield to temptation, before you could be swept away by your passions, before all of that totally disregarding that, making all of that irrelevant. He chose you before while you were yet sinning. And even before that, to be his very own. I mean, think about it. It just will give you goosebumps.

And it gets better because it says, "He chose us in him before the creation of the world." Now, if you believe geologists, they will tell you that the world is over four billion years old. And if you believe this verse, it says, "Long before any of that, he chose you." Before the dawn of time, he said, "I pick Paul the Apostle and René the schlepfer." And Doug and Sherry, and Paul, and Heidi, and Dick, and Robert, and June, and Sue, and Grace. Now, somebody's gotta come along and tell Paul and Sue and Grace and June, "God picked you." But think of how different this is than the way people usually perceive Christianity. It's not, "You better behave yourself, and then maybe God will bless you, and maybe God will allow you into heaven." It's, "God has made this amazing opportunity available to you, and so you can now respond, not worried if God is going to approve you, but knowing that it's a meritless, unconditional, loving choice." This is so energizing and so motivating.

And it says, "He chose us in him to be holy and blameless in his sight." Now, some of you are going, "Well, that's proof that I'm not chosen right there because I'm not holy and blameless." It says, "Holy and blameless in his sight." This is not how he will see you one day, maybe when you're glorified. It's how he chooses to see you right now, and yesterday, and tomorrow morning. In fact, say that last phrase. Say, "I am holy and blameless in his sight." Say that out loud with me. "I am holy and blameless." And many of you are like, "I am holy and blameless." I'm not sure this is really true. Say, is René teaching heresy? Say it, you're quoting scripture here, people. Say it out loud like you mean it. "I am holy and blameless in his sight." Unsure about that, right? Again, the key is in his sight.

It's kinda like this. This is a piece of paper on which I wrote my worst sins that I'm the most ashamed of that I committed this past week. Not really, in case you're curious, and you wanna go up here and grab this. This is just a grocery list, but this is just an illustration. Some of you are like, "I wanna get up there after church and see what's on that list." All right, so look, here's this piece of paper with this writing on it. Here's my Bible, but I'm gonna put that list in my Bible. Now, can you see that list anymore? Can you see the list of my sins? No, all you see, you don't even know it's there. All you see is the word of God. The Bible teaches that when you simply receive Christ, this is how God sees you. You're covered with the righteousness of Jesus. You're cloaked in his holiness. And so the way he sees you, it's not based on what anybody says about you, what anybody thinks about you, what you think about yourself, even on whether you deserve to be seen this way or not. That's the whole point. You don't deserve it. None of us deserve it. But when you place your trust in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, these things are true of you.

I am lavishly blessed. I'm chosen by God. And then third, I am God's beloved child. Say that out loud with me. I am God's beloved child. Look at verses five and six. In love, he predestined us to be adopted as his children 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.

Now, I looked up this phrase adopted as his children in the original Greek, and this one does actually have legitimate, powerful meaning. It's a legal, technical term referring to the rights of an adopted heir of somebody in Roman culture. Roman adoption was like this. You got three things. You received an absolute brand new identity. Your old identity was actually expunged from all the legal records. As far as anybody knew legally, you were a part of this family biologically. You received a lifetime guarantee. There was no way the family could unadopt you, and you had to legally get an equal inheritance. The family was not legally allowed to distinguish between adopted children and biological children when it came to the inheritance that was all decided at the moment of adoption, and this is what Paul's readers are thinking of when they hear this term. God has so forgiven my past that I have a new identity, I have an eternal guarantee, I'm a co-heir with Christ. Amazing! I am God's beloved child!

Now, we could stop right there for most of you and I just close, but whenever I preach on God as Father, I know some people are going to tell me, René, I have a really hard time with this imagery, because my dad left, he abused, he abandoned, he walked out on us. To some of you, the very idea of God as Father is frightening, because your own experiences with a father were so negative, and I totally get that. And what I would say is this, and I know this isn't easy, but don't judge God by your earthly father. Rather than saying, my dad was a jerk, so I guess God is a jerk, try to think of the best, most loving father a child could ever have. That is who God is to you.

When a child of a father like that fails, or stumbles, or questions, or cries, a dad like that would never, ever stop loving that child. A good father is there for all the hurts, and all the questions, and all the insecurities and uncertainties. And if you understand that this is who God is to you, it'll revolutionize your spiritual life.

You know, one of the most famous Olympic races ever was at the London Olympics in 1992, British runner Derek Redmond was a medalist hopeful in the men's 400 meter race, but right after the race began, and the runners shoot out of the starting blocks, something goes wrong. I want you to watch this video and see what happens next. The race begins, but keep your eyes on Derek Redmond. He suddenly stops and grabs his right hamstring and he has to stop running. It turns out it is a torn muscle. And he tries to keep running, but he can't do it, and the other runners cross the line and the race seems to be over. But in agony, he tries to finish the race, and he seemed to reach the end of his strength. He can't do it when a man from the stands runs up behind Derek, it's Derek's dad, Jim. And if you can read lips, he says, "I love you, son." And as Derek realizes who it is, he's overcome with emotion. He grabs his dad around his neck, hugging him, crying, as they move together toward the finish line. And again, if you can read lips, later in this video clip, you'll hear, you see Derek Redmond say, "I can't do it." And his dad says, "Yes, you can." And he says, "Okay." And the crowd is roaring their approval of this. In fact, nobody ever remembers who won the race. But everybody remembers the two men who finished the race, Derek and his dad.

Now, when you think of God as your heavenly father, that is what he is like. I mean, it's almost like a biblical parable that Jesus might've told. Because when it was impossible, physically, spiritually impossible for you to finish your race, your heavenly father didn't just stay up in the stands, you know, with his arms folded, judging you, or even yelling down, you know, encouragement, "Just try harder." He came down incarnate into our world, and at inconceivably great cost, he imparts his strength to us. He not only gives us his shoulder to cry on, but he actually strengthens us so that we can move forward and finish the race, not in our own strength, but in the strength and power he gives us. That is what grace looks like.

What comes to mind when you think of God as father? I hope that comes to mind. Can you see the difference all this makes? I want you to jot this down. The key to a joyful, confident life is knowing my identity in Christ. Now, each weekend in this series, I'm gonna be encouraging you to do an exercise that Teresa Ingram, Chip Ingram's wife, actually started, and you can see this on page three of your notes. On one side of a card, she writes down misbeliefs she had, like, "I must be approved or accepted by certain people to be happy. I must work harder to prove my worth. If people really got to know me, they would reject me." And then on the other side, she writes the truth, like what we learned today. "I'm already lavishly blessed, unconditionally chosen, and lovingly adopted by the most important person in my life, God." So each week in this series, we're going to be giving you another misbelief and truth that you can start your own card file on or put this in the Notes app on your phone or wherever you like to access this. I'd encourage you to work on these every single week because it's gonna change your life if you do.

So let me go back to where we started today. How do you complete the sentence, "I am"? How about, and say these three points out loud with me, "I am lavishly blessed. I am chosen by God. I am God's beloved child." And this is just the start. Bow your heads with me, let's pray.

With our heads bowed, we've talked about God choosing you. Maybe you sense God's choosing you right now. And you're feeling that pull, you're feeling that tapping, that knocking on the door of your heart, and you're thinking, "I want that." Well, guess what? God's planting that thought in your mind. God's drawing you. He's doing exactly what he had planned millions of years ago because he wants you. And maybe you want to simply pray, "Lord, I don't understand it, but I receive it through Jesus Christ. I want to make Jesus my savior and Lord. I receive your lavish grace." And many of you may want to pray, "Lord, I have received Jesus years ago, but I'm not living in these truths. Help me to live in these rich truths this week. Help me to have a biblical view of my beautiful identity in Christ. Help that to change my life, in Jesus' name, amen.