All right, Ephesians chapter four, verse one. Let's stand for the reading of God's word. We were in this passage of scripture last Sunday morning, and we're gonna look at a different verse today. We're gonna look at verses one through six. Now let's look at one through seven. Can't leave out number seven, such a good verse. Ephesians chapter one, verses one through seven, and let's read the odd-numbered verses together. I'll read the even-numbered verses alone, and we'll read this portion of Scripture responsibly. Ephesians chapter one, verses one through seven, the word of God says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God to the saints which are at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved, and together, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace. Let's pray. Lord, we could spend a lot of weeks in these verses, such powerful, eternal truths. We're grateful for the so great salvation that you've given us. Thank you that we have a Bible that's been inspired and preserved. Thank you that there's a Holy Spirit that still speaks to us and reveals your word and will to us. And we ask today in these A few minutes we've set aside for the preaching of thy word, that you'd give me the words to say, that you'd give all of us ears to hear, and that the sweet Holy Spirit of God would work in each and every life, revealing these eternal truths and how they apply to our situation. And I just pray, Lord, if there's any here that's not sure they're saved and going to heaven, that today would be the day of their salvation. If there's any here that's discouraged, perhaps worn out by life and so many difficulties and perhaps overwhelmed. that you would give strength and comfort and grace and remind us of the wonderful truth that you've set before us today. May it bring us strength and joy and security, not just today, but for the rest of our lives as you bring it to mind. We pray in Christ's name, amen. You may be seated. So we're in our series on Sunday mornings called The New You and Your Identity in Christ. And then we're learning about what the Bible says about the old man, our old sin nature. When we get saved, we have a new nature, that new creature, that new creation called the new man. And we become a new person on the inside. And that person, that saved part of us, that new creature, that redeemed, forgiven part of us is eternal and it's wonderful. but it's wrapped in this old flesh. And part of the Christian life is learning how to let that new godly part of us out into the world so that other people can see it and we can experience the victorious Christian life. Also, we're learning what God says about us. Once you get saved, you're not only a new creature in Christ, you have a brand new identity. Who does God say you are? You know, we've all had people in our lives who told us who we were. And sometimes those weren't very pleasant things, were they? We've all had people in our lives tell us what we could do and what we couldn't do and who we were and who we weren't. A lot of times those negative things stick to us. We begin to believe I'm unloved, I'm ugly, I'm worthless, I should have never been born. All of these terrible things that kind of stick in our brains and our hearts. Well, dear friend, we need to learn what God says about us because what God says about you is more powerful than what anybody else has ever said about you. And it's more powerful than even what you think about yourself. We tend to think very negatively of ourselves, don't we? that self-talk in our heads, unless you're an absolute narcissist or someone that's just filled with pride who thinks you are the gift to God's creation, then you understand that you've got some flaws, you've got some negative things in your life, but we tend to magnify those and not pay attention to the good things. What we want to do in this series is have God say, yes, you have all of these negatives and I died for those so that you could receive forgiveness and healing. And Christ minimizes those things and he brings out the best that he put in us and teaches us who we are. We've learned a lot of wonderful things, but today I want to give you this truth. Last week we learned that you are blessed in Christ. That's part of your new identity. You know, sometimes we think, well, nothing ever works out for me. I've got bad luck. Everything's terrible. I never get ahead. Everybody's against me. Well, what you find out about through the Bible is that in Christ you're blessed and that you have incredible blessings. And if you missed that, I encourage you to go back and catch it online. But today we're gonna talk about this fact, and I think this is so precious and so wonderful, and it'll bring you a lot of security if you let it. And it's this fact, you are chosen in Christ. You are chosen. God chose you. Think about that. God chose you. God chose you to be His child. If you're born again, if you're a Christian, God chose you to be His child. The Almighty chose to spend eternity with you. The Almighty chose you to speak to Him every day in prayer, to learn from His Bible every day as He speaks to you through His word. And we can find tremendous security and comfort in the knowledge that we are chosen in Christ. While I was thinking about this thought and meditating upon it, I couldn't help but remember being on the playground in elementary school, and any time we were gonna play dodgeball or kickball or whatever game, there would be two captains picked, and we would all line up, and you know what happens next, don't you? they start the choosing process. And there's a certain joy and exhilaration in being chosen first. Wasn't that awesome? The recognition that, hey, I can contribute, that somebody wants me. And why those first person chose on the first team, the first person chose, and then everybody's like, okay, I wasn't first. And then the second person chose, and the third, And the fourth, and you're starting to look down the line. And with every consecutive choice that wasn't you, it's like you get deeper and deeper into this hole of depression. It's demoralizing to have person after person picked before you. I think the process of not being chosen, not being picked, brings up the innate negative emotions of not being wanted. Not being appreciated, not being respected. We all have fear of that. And then it's down to the last two people. And now your only goal in life is not to be chosen last. Right? And sometimes, at that time in my life, I was chosen last. What a beautiful thought to think. that God never picks you last. That God picked you. He looked at the entire world that's alive today and said, I want her. I want him. I want her, I want him. I want that one. Hey, you're on my team. What a beautiful, beautiful thought. Isn't it true that everybody wants to be wanted? Everybody needs to be needed. You know God himself wanted to be wanted? When God created Adam and Eve, he made them perfect and put them in a perfect garden with a lot of perfect trees and perfect animals, but he put one tree in the garden as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and he said, if you eat that tree, it's gonna be sin and you're gonna die spiritually. You ever wonder why God put that one tree in the garden? because he wanted Adam and Eve to choose him. There had to be a choice for them to choose God and not be robots. Do you know I didn't force my wife to marry me? You might think I had to, but I didn't. I wanted her to choose to be with me. And she did, much to my surprise and eternal gratitude. Everybody wants to be wanted. Everybody needs to be needed. We find deep meaning from being respected and being appreciated for what we can bring to the table in any situation. And I have good news for you today because God himself wants you. God himself chose you to be on his team. You are wanted. You are appreciated, you are loved by the Almighty. Doesn't that bring great security? Now I say that, and some of you are like, yeah, he loves the person over there, but not me. Or he loves that person over there, but not me. No, I'm talking about he loves you, and he chose you. God is the king of creation, and he makes decisions far above our pay grade, doesn't he? Our all-knowing God chooses people and nations for his purposes. Just by way of introduction, I want you to remember some of the monumental choices that God made in the scripture. We learn in Deuteronomy chapter 7 that God chose Israel out of all the other nations on the earth. So back in the Old Testament times, he didn't have churches that represented him. He had a nation that represented him, and he chose Abraham out of all the other men on the planet. He chose Israel out of all the other nations on the planet to be his representatives. Deuteronomy chapter 7, verses 7 and 8 says, The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people, for you were the fewest of all people. But because the Lord loved you and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt." This, of course, after their mighty exodus from Egypt. But notice the Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you because you were more. He chose you. because he loved you. God chose the nation of Israel. The Bible says that God chose David to be the king of Israel. 1 Chronicles 28, verse 4, God chose David instead of his brothers. You remember the story? The prophet came to David's father's house, and his seven brothers set out before him, and oh, surely the firstborn, a mighty man, a strong man, capable with poise and strength. No, not him. The next. No, not him. The next, the next, the next. And none of those were it. And the prophet said, do you have any other sons? And even his dad didn't think about David. He said, well, I've got another son, but he's just out in the field keeping the sheep. And the prophet said, well, bring him in. And when David walked in, this young man, not much to look at, not strong yet and powerful. God chose him from all his brothers. God chose David. Then the Bible says God chose David over Saul. In 2 Samuel 6, verse 21, Saul was king, but Saul became lifted up with pride and filled with self-will. And so God chose David to be the king instead of Saul. God chooses nations and people for His purposes. We see next that God chose Christ to be the Savior of the world. Isaiah 42 verse 1, behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect, the word elect in the Bible often means chosen, my elect in whom my soul delighteth, I have put my spirit upon him, he shall bring forth the judgment to the Gentiles. 1 Peter 2, 6 says about Christ, wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, behold I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded." Talking about Christ. And so God chose Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world. The Bible is full of choices that God made. But the most amazing choice that God has ever made is the fact that God chose you and I to be with Him forever. Can I be honest? If I was in charge, I wouldn't have chosen me. But God did, and that's humbling. It also gives a lot of security and comfort, knowing that the God who knows everything bad about me knows me anyway. You see, sometimes you say, well, God wouldn't love me because I've done a lot of bad things. Can I remind you today that God knows everything bad you've ever done? Everything bad you've ever done, every skeleton in your closet, everything that your parents never found out about, everything that your spouse doesn't know, everything that your kids, you hope they never find out, everything that you've tried to forget yourself, God knows it all, and Jesus died on the cross for all those sins, and God says, I know every negative thing about you. I know bad things about yourself. You don't even know about you, and I choose you anyway. Isn't that a blessing? God chooses us. Think about the example of adoption when it comes to choosing. The Bible declares that believers are twofold the children of God. We're once a child of God by the new birth when we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior. We acknowledge that He is the Son of God, that He died on the cross to pay for our sins, was buried and rose again, and we put our faith in Him. The Bible says in that very moment our sins are forgiven. We become a child of God by birth, and there's advantages to having that natural birth connection. But you know the one down fold of a natural birth is you can't choose who your children are gonna be. You can't choose the gender, you can't choose the hair color, the eyes. But you know with adoption, adoption is different in the fact that you choose your child from a pool of candidates. You see who they are, you see the color of their hair, the color of their eyes, and you say, I want that one. The Bible says we're twofold the children of God, once by the new birth through faith in Christ, but secondly, by adoption. When we trust Christ, the Bible says that we are adopted into the family of God. It says that in the book of Romans, and some of you know this, some of you, it might be interesting to you, The reason why that's in the book of Romans is because the Romans had a law that if you had a natural born child, you could actually divorce your child. You could disown your child and they would get none of your inheritance. But if you adopted a child according to Roman law, you could never choose to unadopt them. It was a permanent relationship as long as you both live. Isn't that a blessing? So we have the familial connection of a natural birth, the new birth, but we also have the legal protections, the spiritual protections of being adopted into the family of God. We are twofold the children of God. What a blessing. But dear friend, in that idea of adoption, and let me just say that if you were adopted I've dealt with and tried to counsel people over the years who have been adopted and there's a certain pain and suffering that goes with having your natural birth parents either not want you or not being able to take care of you. But oftentimes we've had a lot of success when people are adopted showing them the love that takes place when someone chooses you. So maybe your natural birth parents, they weren't able to or they didn't want you for some reason, but that's not your fault. That's because they were broken. They were hurt. They were suffering. But dear friend, someone came into your life and says, I don't I want to take care of you. I choose you. I'm going to change your diapers. I'm going to buy you clothes. I'm going to put food in your mouth and a roof over your head. I want to be connected to you for the rest of our natural lives. You are my child. There's a lot of love there, folks. And oftentimes, someone that has struggled with feelings of abandonment for years can find great comfort in the fact that somebody loved them, and they can get victory over those negative feelings. But it's the same for us that the God of eternity looked at the orphanage of lost souls and said, I want that one, and I want that one, and I want that one, and I want that one, and I want that one, and I want that one. We were chosen by God Almighty. It doesn't get any better than that. He chose us. I want you to look back at our text and consider it again, Ephesians 1, verse 4. Ephesians 1, verse 4, according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him. Notice that God chose us before the foundation of the world. Before there was ever a world, God chose that I would be his child, that I'd be saved. God chose you. Now, how does that work? How did God choose us before we were ever created? And I want to remind you that God lives outside of time. We as humans experience time in a linear fashion. There's the past, the present, and the future. We can't go back to the past. We can't step into the future. We experience each moment in succession without being able to alter it. God, if you imagine your life and the life of creation itself being a timeline, God is not participating in the timeline in a linear fashion. God is outside of time presiding over all of it. He is in all of time at the same time. That'll blow your mind. Because He's not like us. He's in the past, He's in the present, and He's in the future, all at once. And so the Bible says He knows the end from the beginning, and He knows the beginning from the end. It's like a book that you've already read. You might be on page 32, but this is your second time reading it. You've already read the beginning to the end. You know how it ends. You know what happens to the characters. God is outside of time, and he understands us and interacts with us in ways that are truly divine. So in order for us to understand how God chose us and why God chose us, there's three words that you have to understand. And if you miss If you misdefine these three words, you're going to mess up your salvation doctrine. But let me give them to you. They're very easy to understand in this context. The three words are predestination, foreknowledge, and election. Predestination, foreknowledge, and election. Now it's important you get these right because there's a group of Christians called Calvinists or Hyper-Calvinists, and they believe that God chooses who goes to heaven and who goes to hell arbitrarily. So God might come into a room like this and say, heaven, hell, heaven, hell, heaven, hell, heaven, hell, heaven, hell, heaven, hell, heaven, hell, and he just decides before you're ever born, they believe God decides who goes to heaven, and they believe God decides who goes to hell, and that choice is just based on his mysterious will. Now, this doctrine is fine if you are one of the chosen ones. But it doesn't work out very well if you're not one of the chosen ones. Here's an interesting fact. I've never met someone who believes that, that thinks their children are not chosen. I really envy your family. Ah, don't pray for Bob there. He's got to go to hell. God chose him to go to hell. Never heard that in my whole life. It's a convenient doctrine, and here's what happens. It actually brings a false comfort to the Christian, but it also steals soul-winning zeal from Christians, and it paralyzes churches. These churches don't have any outreach program. They don't take Jesus outside their walls, because after all, God's gonna get all the elect people saved anyway. I really don't have to do anything about it. It's not a biblical doctrine, all right? So how does this work? Let me give you the correct definitions of these words. So predestination is simply predestined. It's the act of deciding beforehand. Another Bible word is foreordained. So the Bible says that God predestined some to believe. Now wait a minute. We believe, and I'll show you this in the scripture, that God decided ahead of time that those who believe in Christ would be saved. So God set the rules. He determined the rules. If you and I were going to play basketball, there has to be rules to make the game fun. If you've ever played a pickup game of basketball and nobody's going by the rules, it's not a fun game. That was out of bounds. No, it wasn't. That was a three. No, it wasn't. You fouled me. No, I didn't. You can't operate in that system. There has to be a set of rules. So God determined ahead of time the rules for the game, and he said, I am deciding ahead of time that my son Jesus Christ is going to come down to earth, he's going to die on the cross for your sins, be buried and raised again, and anybody who puts their faith in Christ is going to get to go to heaven. We understand that from the Bible. Look at Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. Now we're going to use our Bibles a little bit. Romans chapter 8. and verse 30. So Romans chapter 8 verse 30, Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called, the word called in the Bible is the synonym for the word chosen, and whom He called, then He also justified." That's another synonym for... or forgiven, made free from sin, and whom He also justified, then He also glorified. That's talking about going to heaven. And so we're predestined, called, justified, and glorified. And so this is important. Predestination is simply saying, God says, I've decided how you're going to go to heaven, and then wait a minute, I also know, predetermined, who is going to heaven. But how does He make that choice? We see the word calling. So the word called in Romans chapter 8 verse 30 is a synonym of the word election. It means to be called forth from a crowd. In election, excuse me, in salvation, election is the doctrine that God chooses those who will be saved. But wait a minute, how does He choose? Don't miss this. God chooses those who choose Him. God chooses those who choose Him. God chooses those who choose Him. He doesn't make such a monumental choice at random. God said, all right, I'm going to give everybody an opportunity to be saved, and then I am going to choose those who choose me. We find the last word for knowledge, so predestined, Predestination, election, foreknowledge. Foreknowledge is simply the knowledge of knowing things or events before they exist or happen. And so remember, God's outside of time. Before I was ever born, God knew that there would be someone named Paul Chapman. He knew that that he would get the opportunity to trust Jesus at 16 years of age, and he knew that I was going to make the choice to put my faith in Jesus. So God says, he chose me, I'm choosing him. Now wait a minute, since God lives outside of time, he can go all the way back to the beginning. And so he's looking down time saying, I know everybody who's going to choose me, so I'm choosing them ahead of time, and I am predetermining that those who will choose me in the future, they are so saved that their destination is already determined. Predestination, election, and foreknowledge. So that gets, you say, preacher, I feel like I just went to school, and I feel like I'm in physics class, and I'm not getting much of it. Here's the thing you need to know. God chooses those who choose him. You say, oh, am I chosen? Well, that all depends. Did you choose him? See, folks, you don't have to try to figure out if you're one of the elect. You don't have to try to figure out if you're one of the chosen. All you have to do is choose him, and then you'll realize I was one of the chosen, because God knew I was going to choose The Bible says in 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 2, elect or chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. So we're chosen according to the foreknowledge. So God looks down from heaven and says, I know ahead of time who's going to choose me, so I'm choosing them before they're born because I know they're going to choose me and I'm determining that they are going to heaven. Isn't that a blessing? We got Tylenol in the back if you need one, if your head's hurting, trying to figure all that out. Let me show you some verses, and some people would say, well, no, no, you don't get a choice. God chooses you. Yeah, God chooses those who choose him. In every great salvation verse in the Bible, there's a choice presented. So let's look back at the Gospel of John. Gospel of John chapter one. I love some of these verses, and I want you to look at them, and you can mark some of these. if you'd like. John chapter one, and look at verse 12. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. You see that? If you receive him, he receives you. If you choose him, he chooses you. Look at John chapter three. We're familiar with verse 16, but look at verse 15. John chapter three, verse 15, and we'll look at verse 16 too. That whosoever believeth on him should not perish, that means die and go to hell, but have eternal life, that means go to heaven. Four, because God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that's Christ, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Notice it doesn't say that whosoever is elect should have everlasting life. There's a choice made. God says, I'll choose you if you choose me. My son came to die. The offer is there. If you choose my son, then I will choose you. Look at John 3 and verse 36. This is a verse said initially by John the Baptist, inspired by God. He that believeth on the Son, that's Christ, hath everlasting life, eternal life in heaven. And he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. So you see the choice? If you want to go to heaven, believe on Jesus. If you don't believe on Jesus, the wrath of God is going to abide on you. You have to pay for your own sins. But the choice is Yours. So many verses. Look at John 5 and verse 24. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. Look at John 6 and verse 47. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life." Are you starting to get the picture? I mean, we can keep going, dear friend. Look at John chapter 10, verse 9. Jesus compares Himself to a door that you must walk through. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 9, I am the door, by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pastor. Jesus said, hey, I'm a door, you wanna be saved, walk through me. Gettin' saved's as easy as walkin' through a door. Gettin' saved's as easy as drinkin' the water of life. It's as easy as takin' a drink of water. Gettin' saved's as easy as eatin' a piece of bread. All you have to do is acknowledge the Savior. We have to understand that we are a sinner, that we have no way of saving ourselves, but Jesus Christ is the Savior from the foundation of the world, sent to save sinners. Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay for our sins, was buried, rose again. Now I have a choice. Will I trust Jesus as my savior to forgive me of my sins and take me to heaven, or will I reject him and go a different way? This is the choice. If you choose Jesus, God chooses you. If you don't choose Jesus, God doesn't choose you. And he looks down through time and he says, I already know who was going to choose me. Hebrews chapter 2 verse 9, the Bible says, Jesus tasted death for every man. Some people say, well, Jesus only died for the elect. Well, the Bible is very clear, Jesus tasted death for every man. And folks, it was humbling to me when I finally figured out that God loved me and that Jesus paid for my sins. Who am I? A little kid growing up in Green County, Indiana, where there's more cows than people. A town of 1,000 people, and we lived six miles outside of town. And God knew who I was, and He knew where I lived. And He sent a bus worker to knock on our door and invite us to church, because God cared about me. And I don't know how you got saved, but let me tell you, God knew where you were and he knew how to get to you. I don't know why you're here today, but let me tell you, God knows where you live. He knows who you are. You're here for a reason. You say, I want to be chosen. And all you have to do is choose him. Acts 16, 31 says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Let me show you the last invitation in the Bible, Revelation chapter 22. Last book of the Bible, last chapter of the Bible. Before God closes his holy word, he one more time says, hey, you wanna come, I'll let you come. You wanna go to heaven, I'll take you. You choose me, I'll choose you. Look at Revelation. Chapter 22, verse 17. And the Spirit, the Holy Spirit and the Bride, those are the other folks that are saved. And the Spirit and the Bride say, come. And let him that heareth say, come. and let him that is a thirst come. And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely. Jesus said, you thirsty? You want me in your life? You want to go to heaven? Come on. You come to me and I'll receive you. You choose me. and I'll choose you. So as we close, let's review. God is eternal. He lives outside of time. He knows everything that's ever gonna happen. He knows the beginning from the end, the end from the beginning. God gives everyone a choice to be saved. He gives everyone an invitation, says, come to me. You believe on my son, I'll receive you. You choose me, I'll choose you. God knows ahead of time who will choose to be saved. He calls those who choose him the elect or the chosen, and God predestinates the chosen who have chosen him to go to heaven. Here's the final example. The example of marriage. When my wife and I, we were dating fairly seriously, and I got to the place that I wanted to ask her to marry me, This is big stuff, ladies. I mean, guys, we're pretty scared to death when it comes to asking a lady to marry us. And I was pretty confident she would say yes, but there's always that fear and that doubt. And so we were on a date. We were at Navy Pier up in Chicago. We had another group with us. And the night was getting on, and I was gonna ask her, and I chickened out, and I was gonna ask her, and I chickened out, and I was gonna ask her, and I chickened out, and it was almost time for us to leave. Like, the date's almost over. I'd already talked to her dad and got permission. Her family was waiting for a phone call, and here I am, a chicken. Boop, boop, boop, boop. I mean, it's like, I'm just chickening out. And I wanted to take her out by the water, because Navy Pier is right on Lake Michigan. I wanted to take her out by the water, but by that time it was dark. It was actually sprinkling a little bit. People were starting to leave Navy Pier, the people that were with us, and it was sprinkling a little bit outside. And I didn't want to do it around everybody, so I said, hey, can you step outside with me and let's look at the water, see if we can see it. So we step outside, and I'm out there hoing and humming, and I had written this poem. I think it was a 32 stanza poem. We lost all but the last stanza. So I start saying this poem, and she's pretending like she's enjoying it. The last stanza of the poem is, I want us to be together for as long as God gives us life. So now I ask on bended knee, would you, Sarah, please be my wife? And I come down to that final one, and I'm like, so finally I just started talking. I got down on one knee, and I asked her, and she's like, yeah. You know, she's crying, and it was beautiful. I come to find out later that I was wearing, I had the key box in my pocket, and she said, every time you sit down, there was a perfect outline of a key box in your pants. She said, I knew that you were going to ask me to marry me, and you wouldn't. She said, you just wouldn't do it. She said, I was so afraid. She said, the date is starting to end. And when you asked me to go outside, she's like, yes, yes, let's go outside. Let's go outside. And so I almost blew it. But you know, the way a marriage proposal works is a man chooses a woman to be his wife out of all the other women in the world. And he says, I'm choosing you. I pledge myself to you till death. But do you know, she still has to accept that proposal, doesn't she? He could have said no. But if she accepts the offer, with God's help, we can live happily ever after. See, you can only marry someone who chooses you too. And God comes to you and makes an eternal invitation. I want you to be with me forever. I've done everything I can do. I gave you life. I've taken care of you up to this point. I sent my son to purchase salvation. I've given you an opportunity right now to hear the gospel. The invitation is made. But it still takes someone to say, yes, I choose you. God chooses us when we choose him. Simple question, have you chosen him? You say, I've chosen him. Then dear friend, you can rest in the fact that you are chosen. God chose you out of the entire planet and said, you're one of mine and that's forever. And if you're not chosen, you say, I've never been saved, I never put my trust in Jesus, but I'd like to be chosen, then you choose him. And when you choose him, he chooses you. Amen? Let's pray. Father, thank you for the truth that we've heard today.