Mark spoke from 1 Pet 2:9-10 this morning, looking especially at the phrase ‘we are a chosen people’.
Knowing our identity in Christ and our purpose in God is vitally important. People often spend a great deal of time answering the question ‘Who Am I?’ Finding one’s ancestors can often reveal unexpected facts (sometimes with skeletons in the closet!) – apparently one of Diane’s relatives was recorded in the electoral roll as being an ‘imbecile’ or ‘village idiot’!
We don’t have to be conditioned by our ancestral history, however. What the Bible teaches us is that God has chosen us. ‘Chosen’ comes from two Greek words, meaning ‘out of’ and ‘to fit together’. We have been chosen individually by God from all the people in our generation, chosen before even the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight (Eph 1:4), to serve Him and make His light known. Paul told the Galatians he had been set apart from birth and was called by God’s grace (Gal 1:15). We are chosen, special, hand picked by God and however much we may wonder why, the fact remains that God is the Creator who can make us all useful! We may not be the most intelligent or the most amazing people (see 1 Cor 1:26-27), but God nonetheless has chosen us and as a result of this, we have an obligation to live well for God, making the most of every opportunity (Eph 5:16)
Matt Redman echoes this verse in his song ‘The Glory of Our King’:
‘We are, we are a chosen people,
We are, we are called to follow,
We are, we are Your generation.’ (Matt Redman, ‘The Glory of Our King’)
‘The Glory of Our King’, Matt Redman