So, I’ve entitled this Proof That God Chose You. We’re diving straight into the… the issue of election. I remember some years ago hearing a young man once stated that the reason that he did not turn away from his sins and trust Jesus a Saving Lord, is a belief that he was never chosen by God. You know you have this whole doctrine about God’s choice before the foundations of the earth. And then someday you’re going to be born and someone will share the gospel with you. And then you respond and… and so his… his reason for not responding to the gospel was he believed that maybe God hasn’t chosen me and says justification for remaining an unbeliever was blaming God’s lack of choice. The problem you and I face is, how do you know If God has chosen you or not? Some people believe in double predestination, which means that they believe that this doctrine teaches that God chose some people to send them to hell, and God chose some people to send them to heaven or some kind of variation of that. Some people look at this doctrine and they go; God must be unfair and unjust. I mean, not selecting some people to heaven. He’s powerful enough. He could choose to select everybody. That’s true, He could! A variation on this would be that God is maybe not all powerful or not all good or unloving, and not choosing some. Sure, we know God can change all people’s hearts. Sure, we know that God can save every person. But do these accusations… these reasons, line up with what God’s word is teaching? And so let me give you a couple of basic statements that will help you to grapple with this doctrine and… and, and so that and we’ll dive into some of more of the theology. Obviously, over two Sundays, we’re dealing with this theology, but these… these statements help me because this isn’t an easy doctrine to deal with. You’ve got to deal with it. It’s there, but… but these things help me. First of all, people go to hell because of their own sinful nature. Their own rejection of God’s provision of salvation, not because God did not choose them. and that’s what the Bible is teaching. The Bible does not teach double predestination. If you go to hell, it’s because you’re rejecting God. You’re rejecting the gospel; you’re rejecting Jesus Christ because of your own decision. You… you’re a Sinner, and you’re rejecting God. The Bible, in actual fact says all are sinful and fall short of the glory of God, there is no man who seeks after God. It’s an illustration of a man who’s drowning and a boat comes along to save him. You turn around and you’re kicking away from the boat. That would be the natural tendency of all human beings. The second point is, the just the fair thing for God would be to send every single human being to hell. That would be just because all of us sin and the wages of sin is death. And so that’s a just. And so, to say God is unjust would not be right, because the fair and just thing would be that God should send every human being to hell. The third thing that we need to recognize is that God’s choice or to select some and save some is because of God’s sovereignty. Because of His mercy for His purpose. And you and I don’t know who that would be! OK, that’s God’s job. That’s not my job. OK?And we should stop trying to be jumping into God’s role. The only way you can see is when they do respond. And so, God has a right, ultimately, to decide what to do with this creation for his own glory, Paul answered the argument. Paul answered this argument and in Romans 9: 20-22, when he said: “But who are you – a man to answer back to God!” Will what is molded say to its molder? Why have you made me like this? Has the Potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience, vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. And so here we see some of those truths that one struggles with. These aren’t easy doctrines to… to deal with. But what we recognizing is brothers and sisters, we are creation. He is the creator. He determines what he does with you. How many of you have ever had your coffee mug argue with you? Why did you make me into a coffee mug? No, you don’t! A coffee maker is there and the day that it cracks, you chuck it in the rubbish bin. OK, if you’ve made that coffee mug, you determine its purposes. If you make a cake, you determine it, and we struggle with that reality that God is Creator, and we are the created. The question still remains… How do I know that God has chosen me? And I think, interestingly, this morning our passage sheds some light and begins to provide for you some markers, some evidence that will indicate, yes, indeed, God did select you! And we’ll be doing this sermon like I said, over 2 sermons. Now remember the… the background, something of… of Paul… Paul writes to the Church of Thessalonica that had come into being after three weeks of ministry in the in the context of much suffering and persecution, the Jews got jealous. They rise up, mobilize the mobs to come and literally get… get Paul and… and the missions team kicked out of Thessalonica. These believers that did respond to the gospel in that time period were converted from idolatrous background, and you may recall the idols were many of them were dedicated to like worshipping Caesar or Rome, or that Roma and that kind of thing, and. And so, it was quite easy to see man, here is a bunch of people drawing people to worship King Jesus instead of Caesar. That this would cause a riot situation, especially in a city where your tax was dependent on your relationship with Rome. And so obviously if you know rebelling against Rome, it’s going to affect your pocket. And so that would cause a… a riot kind of scenario other than the reason for the Jews also persecuting. And so, Paul, he remembered he’d gone from Thessaloniki, he went to Berea, ends up Athens and Corinth. And he writes back. Remember he sent Timothy and Silas back to Thessalonica, and… and then Timothy came back and reports about the condition of the church and what we see is wonderful rejoicing evidence. God had indeed done something very special to these Pagan idolatrous Thessalonians and brought them to salvation. And so, we pick up our passage and 1st Thessalonians 1: 1-10.

6 Reasons to be Sure God Chose You:

Because you are in Christ’s church (v1)
Because of how you live (vv2-4)
Because of how the Gospel came you (v5)
Because of how you imitate Christ (vv6-7)
Because of how you witness (v8)
Because of how you changed (v9)