God’s Election
The popular media says that the recent United States election is the most important election of our lives. However from God’s perspective, the most important election is our election of God. Therefore, regardless of the results of man’s election, we rejoice because we are the result of God’s election.
2 Peter 1:10 says, “Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:”. As God’s elect, these things we should do are in verses 4-8: “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
As God’s elect, we press toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. When we pray for revival, it is an acknowledgement that we have not yet arrived. When we stray from his path, God gives us a way to return our hearts back to him. To revive is to restore to a desired state as we renew our minds and press forward to a new state that we haven’t yet attained. According to Romans 12:1-2, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Jesus Christ came to upset the status quo. He didn’t worry about pleasing the politically correct establishment. Men in his culture like men in our culture were marginalized. He said, “follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” He came to set the captives free and open the eyes of those born spiritually blind.
He’s called men who have ears to hear and eyes to see the truth of the Word of God made manifest. For Jesus Christ himself said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh onto the father except by me.” He has called us unto himself, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
Influencers is a ministry to men. A Southern Baptist study concluded, If you win a man to Christ, 93 percent of his family members will turn to the Lord. If you convert a woman, only 17 percent will become Christians. God called us as men of God, not to keep a record of our sins and shortcomings, but so that we would would become the righteousness of God in him. For of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who has been made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption…. that we would be witnesses of the power of his son’s atoning sacrifice and resurrection on our behalf… therefore, we preach not ourselves, but Jesus Christ and him crucified.
To influence others, we must first influence ourselves. The reason we gather together is to create an environment where the holy spirit can come himself to our lives. We need to humble ourselves to allow his spirit in us to influence our hearts and minds.
We gather together as men of God to join our hearts together in prayer. Prayer is aligning our hearts with God’s heart. Prayer is believing according to his word to will and to do according to His good pleasure. Prayer teaches us how to love others with the unconditional love of God. In prayer, we’re reminded of God’s grace… For by grace are ye saved though faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. We’re saved by grace… not because of how good we are but because of how good God is.
God has called us as men of God to bless our marriages. Prayer convicts us that there is nothing wrong with my wife that God can’t fix in me. Prayer teaches me to love my wife unconditionally with God’s love.
Prayer focuses our minds on what really matters… our fellowship with our Lord Jesus Christ, with God our Father, and one with another in the household of believers. In prayer, we confirm that we are citizens of heaven. Prayer informs us that we are Christians who happen to be Americans and not vice versa.
Romans 8:28 says, “All things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose.” God is a good God. He is still on the throne…. he is Sovereign overall. Pete recalls that when his beloved wife Suzan lost her battle with stage four brain cancer, he prayed to his Heavenly Father with a broken heart. God reminded him that Suzan had accomplished her work here on earth. She was ready to be called home to live in eternity with her Lord. In heaven she could accomplish more than she could by remaining here on earth. Before her death, Pete said to Suzan, “I don’t know what I’ll do without you.” Suzan reassured him, “you’ll do just fine.” She reminded him, “God’s your sufficiency, not me.”
When God created Adam and Eve, he created them in His image… God’s Holy Spirit. However, he also gave them freedom of will. His spirit was conditional on their obedience to only one commandment… Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. For on the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.” Even though Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s only command and died spiritually that same day, God works all things for good to those who loved God and are called according to his purpose. Adam’s disobedience set in motion God’s plan of redemption. Although all mankind inherited Adam’s sin nature, God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son Jesus Christ that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
As God’s elect, he orchestrates and weaves together the fabric of our lives to accomplish his good purpose in us. There is nothing God can’t handle. What the world considers bad news, God works for our good. For tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us.
All we like sheep have gone astray. It’s the nature of sheep to look for someone to lead them. We’re naturally drawn to a cause… a mission to give our lives meaning and purpose. The people in Jesus’ day were naturally drawn to him. They wanted to make him their earthly king. Jesus said, “that’s not what I’m here for. My kingdom is not of this world.”
There are two requirements for a man of God. The first is to love God above all. The greatest commandment is, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind and strength.”
The second is to be convinced that God loves us. We love him because he first loved us. The end of Romans chapter 8 says, “What shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
When we are convinced that God loves us then we can love our neighbor as ourselves. God loved us first…he loved us so that we could love others and that in loving others we would reflect the love of God. Jesus said, “In that thou hast done it unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me.”
Some politicians say that we should look to the government to supply our needs. They say, “You don’t need to rely on God. Religion is just a crutch.” They say, “vote for me and I’ll make sure that Uncle Sam will take care of you from the womb to the tomb. That’s your right as an American.” However the Word of God says cursed is the man who maketh flesh his strength. God himself is our sufficiency… he is both our soul provider and our sole provider. We are complete in Him.
We don’t know the end from the beginning… but God does. Salvation is all of Thee and none of me. For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. All things work together both for our good and for His good…. for we are his workmanship… His work of art, his masterpiece, his magnum opus, his poetry in motion… created in Christ Jesus unto good works that he has prepared for us in advance that we should walk with him.
He loved us first… He chose us before we chose him. We are the result of the greatest election, God’s election…
… that we should be to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael
