All right, you ready to get in the Word today?
The Lord is so awesome. Do you know what?
You are? His choice, I said.
You're his choice. I'm going to say that again,
you've been personally picked by God.
Hallelujah, Amen. I said you've been personally
picked by God. In fact, we could, we could go,
let's go over to Ephesians chapter 2 and let me just back
up a few verses where he says maybe we'll start in verse 3 or
maybe verse 4. So why we were yet sinners,
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, right?
And then in verse 6 it says this.
And he raised us up with him and seated us with him in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. Now how did you get there?
Let's go back a chapter in Ephesians chapter 1 starting in
verse 3. Paul says blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every
spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ
because we've been raised up. I said we've been raised up.
But verse 4 just as he what chose us in him when before the
foundation of the world. Now talking about a choice, God
says I'm going to pick you before you are known, before you
even come out of your mother's womb, I'm picking you.
I mean, you did not have to show him a talent, a skill.
You did not have to prove yourself.
You did not have to do certain things like man, this person,
you know, like you know, when you pick for sports or back in
the day. Now you understand in my
generation, we were like tough kids because we did red Rover,
Red Rover, right? That is not for the faint of
heart. We did kickball and would hit
you in the face and it was legal.
All right. You understand that's the kind
of generation I grew up in. And so, but when you did a red
Rover line in elementary, I mean, you were looking, you were
looking at the out. You wanted to know there was
something about them that qualified them to come over here
and be on your team. God, before he even did the
foundations of the world already chose you.
It's amazing how many people feel like God.
Why would God want me? Well, before there was a you, He
wanted you. So your performance is not
required to be chosen. Your performance is not required
to be chosen. Because before you could ever
act with God, He chose you. You were his choice, Hallelujah.
So it says He chose you. Verse 4 in him before the
foundation of the world that we would be here.
It is holy and blameless before him.
Verse 5, or yeah, the going into verse 5.
In love He predestined us to adoptions as Son though Jesus
Christ, through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind
intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His
grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the
forgiveness of our sins according to the riches of His
grace. Now this verse here and another
verse that says the Lamb was slain before the foundations of
the world tells us that before God said let there be light,
before he created the heavens and the earth, before He ever
spoke beyond his own existence. He knew his plan for us.
He chose us. He had a destiny for us and He
knew there would be a problem, but He had the remedy to fix it.
And us, our works of ourselves is not what brought that
relationship. It is His word that establishes
this relationship 'cause He says in Genesis chapter one, verse
26. Let us make man in our image
according to our likeness. That means then Adam and Eve in
this garden experience prior to the fall of man were living holy
and blameless, But Adam ate the fruit sin enter the world.
But God already knew I have a plan because what I say I will
perform. And so he sent his Son, and his
Son came in the likeness of a man as the last Adam, and he
fulfilled all the prophecies, and he lived a holy and
blameless life. And the one who knew no sin
became our sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God
in Christ. In essence, to place us back in
a holy, blameless position, not based upon our performance, but
based upon believing Him at His word.
Hallelujah. I said Hallelujah, so he chose
us. When you think about this more
and more, it doesn't matter what you're doing in the earth.
He already chose you before you came.
All you have to do is accept. I'm his choice.
He picked me, and he doesn't pick failures.
He doesn't pick a mistake. It's not because he's sitting
around saying, well, I have nobody better to pick.
I guess I'll pick you. Come on, be on my team.
You're not the last pick, you understand, The one that's like,
well, give me so and so. You don't ever have to.
Your pick is first. You're a first rounder.
I mean, before there's even a round, you've been chosen.
Whoo, Hallelujah. Isn't that amazing?
Look what it says in James chapter 2 verse 5.
Now I love the amplified classic it.
It really translates this well and I'll communicate what a
couple of other translations says so that it's not confusing.
It says, listen my beloved brethren, has not God chosen
those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith
and in their position as believers and to inherit the
Kingdom which he promised to those who loved him?
Now some translation says that God chose those who are poor of
the world and it gives this implication when you read it
that way, that God is just choosing poor people that have
no financial wealth. That is not true.
Plenty of people that had wealth came to know Christ and wealthy
people that hold wealth prior to Christ can be born again.
So really this translation accurately catches is that if
the world looks at you, they're like, oh poor pitiful, poor
pitiful you look at you hold on to that crutch called Jesus,
holding on to that crutch called the church.
Oh, poor pitiful, you yield into this make believe person.
I mean, that's how the world looks at the things of God,
right? And thinks, you know, it's cut,
but yet you're rich in faith. And then when you're rich in
faith, then you're rich because your dad owns the planet.
I said he owns the planet. I mean, there is no person with
money associated with their name that is wealthier than the
father that you have. And if you have faith in God
that you can have it all because what money can't buy, God can.
God can do. God is awesome.
So God chose us, right? He has chosen us that we would
inherit the Kingdom. He has promised this.
This is was in the mind of God, that God when he began to create
the heavens and the earth. And that's his territory that he
has dominion and power over. He says I'm going to have an
offspring of my likeness. It is going to be a man and he's
going to be in my image and he's going to be holy and blameless.
And this is how I choose him. I choose him to be like me.
I choose him to function like me.
I choose him to operate like me. I choose him to be without sin
like me. I choose him to be full of
light, not darkness. I choose him to walk in truth
and not a lie. I choose Him this way, and if
God chooses that, then a way to be that is available and that
way is not based upon us acquiring it of our own, but us
accepting what He has said about it and then acting on it through
faith. I believe God, I am what He says
I am, and that is a tangible thing.
It's tangible when faith is in action.
It's it's, it's known to God. Hallelujah, Thank you, Jesus.
Hallelujah. Come on, say Amen.
Glory to God. God is so good it is tangible.
Without faith it's impossible to please God.
God is functioning from His Word and His Word alone because He
will uphold His word. His Word will not return unto
Him void, but it shall accomplish that which it was
sent to do. His word He will perform.
He's awesome at it. If you want to participate, you
can, through a simple submission and a firm persuasion that God
has the power to perform His Word.
It's His work. Your process is belief, but
belief is tangible. Your side of the equation is a
reality. It has to be in play.
If it's not in play, then it's not recognized.
It's not recognized. Jesus.
I'll give you a great example. Jesus is walking in a crowd
trying to get to a religious man's house because his daughter
is sick to the point of dying. And he has instructed this
particular father that I will come to the house and I will
heal your daughter. So he has the word on it.
However, in the process of the crowd pressing on him, you know,
he's just stuck in this crowd and he can only go so fast.
And you understand, the father definitely probably has some
kind of anxiousness about him. Like can you get out of the way
so Jesus can get to my house? It's not like they had an
ambulance where they could just turn on sirens and go.
All right. Well, while this events taking
place of which it must have taken some time because a
particular woman in the same community has had an issue of
blood for 12 years. And in that society she cannot
and is not supposed to go out in public without proclaiming
unclean, unclean. Because if she touches somebody
in the infirmity that she has, they become unclean for the rest
of the day. However, she hears that Jesus is
going through the streets and she says to herself, after she
has spent all of her money through the physicians to try to
be well, and none of their remedies are working, everything
they prescribe doesn't work. It only is worse.
She concludes, based upon what she has already heard about
Jesus, that if he lays hands on the sick, they're healed.
So she says to herself, if I can just touch the hem of his
garment, I'm going to be made whole.
So she makes a conscious choice. I am going to get to Jesus.
She, not God. She on her own accord in faith
that His word will come to pass and be performed by Him, puts
into action this belief and begins to move through the
crowd. And the reason she concluded
that if I just touches him, which is the lowest part of his
garment, which you know, I'm wearing my fancy socks today to
match my shirt. If I can just get down here,
meaning if I get to this guy, she does not lack determination.
She has based it on if I don't get to him, I'm not going to get
it. And my state is so weak I don't
know that I can, but I'm going to go for it none the less.
And I don't care who's there because if I do reach him, I'm
probably only going to be strong enough.
I'm dragging myself to get to him.
Come on, some we need to drag ourselves sometimes.
And if I just touches him, I'll be made whole.
Now that is not, oh, I'm not doing anything attitude.
See, faith is tangible and it's faith in his ability to perform
what he says. And she acted on that belief.
Not a work of herself, but she did do the effort to get where
she needed to be. And when she touched his him,
the Bible says Jesus, who was highly focused to go to Gyruss's
house or however you pronounce this particular high, this
priest or religious leader to get to his house.
He's focused on this that she only touches his, him, not even
his body, but to close her own, his body.
That power leaves him. This surge of healing anointing
flows out of his being. And he stops and says, who
touched me? Now?
Peter's response is really, I mean, do you see the crowd?
I mean, who's not touching you right now?
I mean, you're you're being bounced around so much.
What? How can you say who touched me?
He said no, no, no, no power has left me.
Now you're saying the woman has touched, she's immediately
healed and she's backing out of the process, right, because she
already knows. I'm not technically supposed to
be in this crowd. I've touched way too many
people. If they only know according to
the law, they are unclean right now.
But I am rejoicing. I am healed.
I've had this for 12 years and man, I'm up out of this thing.
Glory to God, I got it. I'm gone, but God will not come
on, let you leave without acknowledging who is the source,
'cause He wants you to praise Him.
So he says who touched me? And he said no power has left
me. And when the woman recognized
she has not gone unnoticed, even though he did not see her
physically, he spiritually hit the healing anointing left him
and he knows somebody received this.
She comes back, tells him the whole context and then what he
says is very powerful. He says, woman, your faith, your
faith has made you whole, your faith, Hallelujah.
My point is, is that faith is tangible.
So this relationship of his choice is a result of a tangible
faith moment, because from heaven he's chosen you and your
separation from him, your sin, your wrongdoing means nothing to
him 'cause he's paid the price for that.
It's finished to get you out of the problem you're in, however,
there must be a tangible realization that he is going to
be Lord of your life. That is a position by which
there is a firm persuasion that I will follow Him forever.
Not just in this life, not just for a week, not just till I get
baptized, not till the first trial comes, not till the first
attack comes. No forever, for all eternity.
He's always my Lord. He'll always be my Lord.
I'll always be firmly persuaded that He'll always perform His
word. Word.
He does His word. I am his and his alone.
My allegiance is to the King of Glory.
Hallelujah. And here's the thing he's
saying. Before you were in the position
to believe that I already chose you.
I just need you to act on it. I need you to do the part you
have to do and you have to do. It is faith and faith alone.
I'm going to say it again.
It is faith and faith alone, because God has done it all
according to His Word. It's our faith in that Word that
causes it to come to pass, because if we're not believing
Him at His Word, then we do not receive that which is of His
Word. Are you hearing me?
John 1516 says it this way. You did not choose me, but I
chose you. Now He goes on and he says and
appointed you that you would go and bear fruit.
So being chosen is not a static choice or position.
His choice for you is not to let you just be static.
There's a purpose for the choice Hallelujah, of which there is an
appointment and the appointment is for you and that you would go
and bear something and that your fruit then would what remain.
So whatever you ask of the Father in my name, He may give
it to you. Jump over to verse 19.
He says if you were of the world, the world would love its
own, but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out
of the world, because of this, the world hates you.
Now in 2026, I am going to keep in front of you persecution.
I believe my nephew who's pastoring a church over in Pace,
FL, is doing a really good job of keeping persecution in front
of his church body. In our Western society, we are
not persecuted like it is in other places.
And this creates a laziness, a lack of zeal.
And I, you know, have seen some things that he's posted
concerning certain stuff. And I'm like, you know, I think
he's got the right angle here because he is keeping in front
of a Western church who can prosper and live luxury.
Be reminded that not everyone shares this.
And at minimum, we should be passionate in prayer about it.
And then secondly, be active to make sure it doesn't show up in
our nation and there are things happening in our nation so that
it can become like other nations that are highly persecuted.
Say Amen. Anyway, our choice, our being
chosen by God, was not so that we could sit back, have a
retirement mentality, and wait to graduate to heaven.
There is way bigger. The reigning church is not a
retired church. The reigning church is actually
a conquering church. And a reigning church is so much
different than the way the world functions that they know they're
not of the world because the world attacks them.
When's the last time you had serious persecution for the
position you're in? It's not like another place.
And now again, I'm not here saying bring on persecution.
I'm just saying the Bible tells us we're not.
The world should hate us. You should not be friendly with
the world in this context. They're your friend.
It is. I'm showing them the light and I
know there's going to be plenty who hate me and I'm going to
live at peace. The Bible tells us to live at
peace with all men as far as you can, and some you're never going
to have peace with. Not because you're not at peace,
but they're not at peace with you because you're not of the
same people. See, when we talk about His
choice, we're talking about the people of God.
And there are people on the planet that are not people of
God, although He wants them to be His people.
From the beginning, He only wanted a people like Him in His
image. However, Adam ate the fruit and
all have fallen short now of the glory of God.
But there's a redemptive plan for all of us to come back to be
a people of God. But not everyone's going to be a
people of God, because not everyone is going to accept the
finished work of Jesus. First Peter chapter 2 verse 9
and 10 says this. But you are chosen race, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation. Notice this is not a religion.
This is not being relegated to Christianity, although you
should be a Christian or Christ like.
And Christ like means you reign like a king in this life.
All right? We are a chosen race, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, because the Bible's about a
king, his Kingdom, and his royal offspring.
Why are we God's own, a people for God's own possession, so
that you and myself may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has
called us what out of darkness into His marvelous light?
For you once we're not a people, but now you are people of God.
You had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
So at one time we were not a people of God, although before
the foundation of the world, He only saw us as a people of God.
And when humanity fell out of the position of being people of
God, he made a way through his Christ Jesus so that we could
become a people of God again. So we were not a people, but now
we are people and we are a chosen race now in the in the
Western society or just even globally to some degree.
You understand when we say race, we begin to think outwardly, but
God doesn't see race outwardly alone.
Now, it's not that God's blind to our outside.
And here's the thing, God is just way too creative.
I mean, what would you think about a dealership that only put
out their cars white? Are their cars black?
You could never get another very no car dealership limits their
vehicles to one color. Why?
Because it's too they're too creative.
And again, if we go into the parking lot, I've used this
example before, all of you who are driving a white car right
now are not parked only by the white cars.
And all of you that drive black cars are not only parked by the
black cars and all of you riding driving red cars are by the red
cars color coordinator parking lot, which that would probably
be pretty interesting if we did that one Sunday for fun.
But all the blue cars here, you know, but we don't do this.
I mean, here we are driving the vehicle.
And you know what the red car doesn't say to the orange car.
You don't look like me. Don't be by me.
Well, this is how we're made on the outside and God's too
created to make us exact same pattern.
Hallelujah reminds me of that movie that Will Smith was in.
Oh, y'all going to help me with the name of it here in a second
where the robot, you know, I robot.
Thank you. They all look the same.
I mean sometimes when you get around people, you you want to I
like you just want us all to look the same.
God's like I'm way too creative to just make robots.
So yes, God has us in suits that look different.
No problem with that. And God never used that to
divide us, to separate us because he's just too creative.
Hallelujah. I mean, again, I can get all the
self-proclaimed whites or Caucasians and we don't look the
same because now some of you are like, extreme white and need to
find some vitamin D, right? During the summer, you know, I
go to a whole nother shade. In fact, I always do this with,
you know, one of our elders, John Green.
I like to come back from the summer and pull my leg up and
put my leg next to his. You know what, John?
Do you actually wear shorts much during the summer at all?
You do, OK. You don't tan them a whole lot,
but man, my leg will match his leg.
And I feel very, is that not true?
And I'm very stand up so everybody can see you.
That's what I'm talking about. I mean, I'm like, come on now.
I can't do it. Now we're in December.
I fade way more than you. You know, our melatonin is
different, but you know what? We are a chosen race together.
So when God chooses a race, he would never choose just one
color. That's why in his Kingdom
there's every tribe, every tongue and every nation, every
type of people group. Why?
Because God's nation is too. There's too much creativity in
our Father. I mean, we don't even have one
green anymore. You know, you can't even look at
trees and see the same green. I mean, why would we think that
this with us? It's the sin nature that divide.
It's not the God nature. So we are a chosen race.
We are a large group of persons regarded as being biologically
related, and we are because we are of the same bloodline.
His name is Jesus. Hallelujah, I said Hallelujah.
If you have called on the name of the Lord, we are of the same
bloodline. Because when you're chosen by
God, he's bringing you into His family.
It's his blood that's brought us in, which means it doesn't
matter what you look like on the outside, it's what you're
looking like on the inside that brings us into the family.
But then we are our people and a people is a group again, a
tribe, nation, all those who are of the same stock and language
of a great part of the population gathered together
anywhere. I like this and the and the
Greek word they use here is is is demonstrated that on a global
perspective, God has made it available for any person
anywhere to come back into the Kingdom and be his choice.
And yet there are groups of them in each nation because every
nation has groups of believers. They do.
There are believers there. Now, I understand we talk about,
you know, they're unreached people group.
Well, they're, you know, I think you got to do a little more
history because at the end of the day, if you take some time
to think, the gospel started in Jerusalem right after Jesus
death, burial, resurrection and the day of Pentecost.
The gospel was hot in Jerusalem. Then it began to spread to
Samaria. That's that region of the Middle
East. Then it began to expand out.
They believe that Thomas his bones are in India and it began
to expand. Well, you know, when Jesus said
you're going to be a witness for me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria
and the remotest parts of the world.
Well, the United States is remotest part as opposed to
Jerusalem. So when we talk about the 10:40
window in the Middle East, well, you know the Middle East has
heard the gospel longer and for more years than we have now.
Should we be in those regions? Absolutely no problem.
But for us to think that these individuals because of their
governments and the way they have persecuted the church and
they won't allow them to be in and allowed other religions.
You understand if you look at the timeline of the Bible when
God was in communities that then they began to reject his truth,
then Les began to follow more challenges.
And it's not because they're not, it's not been preached
there. It's because we've gone multiple
generations that now have either perverted, changed or ignored
it. Hallelujah.
So really we're on the other side.
So the gospel here brings it closer to the end than ever
because we are the remotest part.
We're on the other side of the hemisphere.
Say Amen. Anyway, Romans Chapter 9 verse
25 to 26 says this. It says and he who, and he says
also in Hosea, I will call those who are not my people, my
people, and her who was not beloved, beloved.
Now who's the her? It's his church.
It's the bride of Christ. And it shall be that in the
place where it was said to them, You are not my people there they
shall be called sons of the living God.
Hallelujah. You are children of the living
God. Let that seek in for a moment.
You are children of the living God through a profession that
Christ came, died and was resurrected and his sacrifice
pays for your wrongdoing to the Kingdom.
And by acknowledging Jesus as Lord, you are saved from the
sentence of eternal separation from God.
Hallelujah, I said. Hallelujah.
Oh my goodness, this next verse will mess you up.
Now, why do I say this? Because I'm going to quote a
scripture you already know. But if you'll just stop for a
moment and let it just marinate, man, let it become revelation
again. Let it become real again. 2nd
Corinthians 6 verse 16 and I'm moving into the verse a little
bit because I want to focus on this statement alone.
It says for we are the temples of the living God, just as God
said, I will dwell in them and walk among them.
I will be their God and they shall be my people.
I mean, can we just for a moment sit here and just meditate on
this one thought? The Holy Spirit dwells in me.
The Holy Spirit dwells in. He's made his abode in me.
I have the greater One on the inside.
What can man do to me? I have the third person of the
Godhead dwelling within my being.
What can sickness and disease? How can it stay in the soup?
I have God Almighty, the Spirit of God living in me, bearing
witness with my spirit. I am a child of God.
I'm a child of God and I'm a child of God by His choice.
He always wanted me to rule and reign and have dominion.
He wanted me free from sickness, disease, from sin, from poverty,
from life. He never wanted me to experience
and He's resident inside me now. Woo the dispensation of grace
we're in now as at a whole nother level than the old
covenant. We left cause in the Old
Covenant, the Holy Spirit was exclusive to the nation of
Israel and upon the kings and priests and prophets of that
nation. Very rarely did He move out in
some other arenas. However, in this one, He has
poured out His Spirit on all flesh.
We no longer have to go to a place where the fire or the
power of God would manifest, where we would see the glory of
God in such a way that we couldn't even stand in His
presence. That glory is resident in US, on
the inside of us. And if we don't watch out, we
can make this so common when there's nothing common about it
'cause we have God living in US. I mean, again, we are the most
powerful thing on the planet. We are a people of God.
We are a chosen race. We are a royal priesthood.
We are a holy nation. We are no longer bound to the
things of the flesh. Glory.
I mean, you would when you meditate on that as a true
believer, you would no longer allow yourself to rehearse
fleshly things. You wouldn't do it.
You would no longer want to be around the crowd.
That, that, that comforts my flesh, my weaknesses.
You wouldn't want to do it. You're like, man, I've been
liberated. I've truly been set free.
I don't have to think that way. I'll have to act that way.
I'll have to respond that way. I've been chosen.
I'm chosen of God. I mean, think about it.
How in the world, why would they want to pick our king when the
people that he is over acts no different than them?
But when you do, man, it's different.
Hallelujah. Aren't you glad you're picked by
the king? And again, none of us were here
when He chose us. I'm just walking into His
choice. I'm just walking into His
choice. Galatians 4 six to seven says it
this way. Because you are sons.
God has sent forth the spirit of His Son into our hearts.
Crying What, ABBA Father? Therefore you are no longer a
slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
You know what King Jesus, who sits on the throne at the right
hand of the Father, and he's raised us to sit with him in
heavenly places, is not wringing his hand.
I don't know, Lord, I don't know.
I don't know if I can deal with this today.
I don't know that I can overcome this today.
I don't know if I can resist the temptation today.
Jesus is not doing that. Well, guess what?
Because he's not a slave, I'm not a slave.
Because he broke me out of bondage.
He's broke me out of bondage. I am broken out of bondage.
Bondage has no hope. I have the Spirit of God that
has the power for me to just act on by faith.
Everything God says His chosen ones will do.
And it will come to pass because God will perform that word in my
life. I just need to do my faith
expression, my firm persuasion, Hallelujah.
And I'm going to dive into that a little more in 2026.
Hallelujah Galatians 326 to 29 last verse today says this.
For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed
yourself with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek.
There's neither slave nor slave nor free.
There's neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ.
And if conditional statement, if you belong to Christ, then you
are Abraham's descendants and heirs according to the promise
before you were born, before the foundations of the world, in the
infinite wisdom of God, He knew you, He knew your name, He knew
what you'd look like. And there's only one way he was
looking at you, not in your sinful state, but in your
redeemed. And the reality was he never
wanted you to have to be redeemed because he did not
create something broken. God created man perfect, without
spot or wrinkle. Man broke himself.
But God, because of His word, His choice for man, how did he
choose you? Let us make man in our image
according to our likeness, and let them have dominion.
And so, Son, you go get back what Adam lost.
So that man by faith, should he choose, can be mended, can be
put back together.